All right, good morning.

The time is now uh 1007 a.m.

on Wednesday, October 15th, 2025, and the first meeting of the governance committee is now called to order.

Uh, Madam Clerk, please call roll.

Councilman Mickey Rodriguez.

Present.

Councilmember Via Gran.

Here.

Councilmember Mungia.

Present.

Chair.

Mayor Jones.

We have quorum.

Great.

I understand we have several um individuals that would like to speak this morning.

Uh, so I will allow public comment on all the items at the same time.

Um, and each individual will be able to speak for two minutes.

Um, so uh this was a bit of a last minute change here.

So for those of you that would like to speak, please make a line um at the microphone, and we'll begin the time uh once you state your name and your affiliation.

Nobody else was go ahead.

Go ahead.

Um, good morning, everybody.

So please forgive me if this is uh impromptu.

I'm not really good at uh thinking off the top of my head.

My name is Dale Hansen.

I'm with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local Union 60, and I'm here uh commenting upon item number 12, the creation of a trades advisory board.

Um I believe that even with the permanent, I believe that even with HB 2127 on the books at the state level.

I think if the council were to implement this, I think it would be a net positive because it would at least give workers a voice on city projects, especially things that are coming up in the future.

San Antonio is uh forecasted to grow immensely, and you know, as a worker myself, having built with my own hands some of the infrastructure in this uh in this great city, I think it's uh a wonderful idea for workers to at least have some input on how things are managed, especially if city funds are being used.

So I thank you for your time and attention.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Uh Mayor, appreciate the opportunity to speak on this item.

I'm also here in my capacity as president of the San Antonio AFL CIO Central Labor Council, and on behalf of working families represented by the labor council.

Um, we respectfully urge council members to support the creation of the San Antonio Trades Advisory Board, also known as TAB, as outlined in the CCR is submitted by councilwoman Terry Castillo and Councilman Jalen McKee Rodriguez.

The TAB is envisioned as a worker-centered advisory body tasked with providing formal input and recommendations on city projects, workforce policies, and economic development initiatives.

Its aim is to protect labor standards, ensure fair wages, and prioritize local workforce developments.

And by establishing this board, the City of San Antonio will really take a meaningful step towards ensuring that publicly funded projects benefit the local workforce and that public resources are spent in ways that reflect the city values of equity, accountability, and inclusion.

So we know that there is similar um setups in Harris County and in Durham, North Carolina, where worker-focused boards have really strengthened public accountability and equity.

And we ask that you vote in favor of the tab of today.

Um, I know that there is a recommendation that uh says that you should not support the tab.

However, we do understand that this is an advisory board and will um only advise council and the mayor in the spirit of other advisory boards that the city has created.

So we again urge you to um vote in favor of the tab.

Thank you.

For those of you that would like to speak, please line up behind the microphone so we can go through this fairly quickly.

Thank you.

James May, Smart uh regional business manager, also uh San Antonio Building Trades uh Council President.

We are also in favor of TAB.

Uh we see the importance of labor being represented when it comes to uh points of labor and construction.

Uh many people in this room are affected by every building or infrastructure built in this town.

That's why we're all here.

Uh we all feel the need to make our town better.

Um the only way of doing that is to have a little bit of insight and knowledge on the things that you're speaking about.

Uh we are in the trenches.

We got our blisters and our scars from building the infrastructure that the city sits on.

Uh we disrespectfully ask that you listen to the voice that does build what you stand on.

Thank you.

Hi, Mary Jones and esteemed colleagues.

My name is C say.

I'm a San Antonio resident uh here in the city.

And I'm actually here to hopefully get you guys to put some sites on the uh CCR that's related to heat-related deaths uh and tracking them within the city of San Antonio.

I've actually done a few uh internships with several nonprofits in doing work for trying to talk to the community and how these uh heat-related deaths and the heat-related uh incidents are impacting our community, and I really hope that you guys will go against the advisory committees uh recommendation to vote it as a no because I think that the opportunity costs and not seeing these impacts on our community is really detrimental, and I hope that we are able to put some eyes and real data accumulation towards this initiative.

Thank you again.

Is there anybody else that would like to speak this morning?

Okay, thank you.

First time on the agenda is approval of the minutes.

Um are there any corrections to the minutes from April 16th, 2025?

I make a motion to approve the minutes of April 16th, 2025.

We have a motion and a second to approve the minutes.

Um we'll just do by voice vote.

Um all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Okay.

Motion passes.

Yeah.

Um, we will now go into uh really the meat of the meeting and um Eric here and I appreciate the staff's um um work to help us level set on these and and try to present these um uh these considerations uh in a way that is uniform but also helps us understand what are some of the other considerations that need to be accounted for, right?

Whether they be legal, obviously given the very change, the very rapidly changing legal landscape in which we find ourselves on on all fronts, whether that be labor, labor, reproductive rights, et cetera, et cetera.

So um uh understanding um the considerations as we know them now, which frankly may be different uh when then than when some of these uh CCRs were initially proposed.

That's important for us to understand.

I think we also all are very um uh sensitive to the potential budget implications of some of these ideas.

So the staff has also kind of laid out um at their initial look what some of those may be and whether some of these conversations may be more appropriate and require, frankly, a larger budgetary discussion.

I think what some of these uh as we have also found um um can take frankly a number of forms and still maybe potentially meet the spirit and intent of as they were written.

So in the conversation, you'll hear um a request for additional clarity, and I understand some of the sponsors are here about um you know what exactly is the problem we're trying to solve here, and how can we best do that in light of certainly financial considerations, legal considerations, but no kidding, um you know, sometimes bureaucracy is is not the answer to the problem, right?

And I think um you see a number of of CCRs here.

Um each of these have had a cursory legal review.

Um that does not mean um that again as these things evolve that there might not be other ways to accomplish this these exact same ideas and ensuring that we are um thinking about those, I think is also important, and of course, implementation, um being thoughtful about um you know the idea itself, how it's going to work in practice is is the most important part of this.

It's not just the the idea itself, but what is it actually ultimately achieved?

How can we communicate that and how can we make sure that um most importantly our residents understand what we have just uh what we've just um done here?

Okay, great.

Um Eric, would you have any additional comments?

Yes, ma'am.

As we as we go through the presentation to um, and since this is the first governance committee meeting, um I thought it would be helpful to kind of provide some additional framework around your comments as well, Mayor.

So today there are 11 CCRs that are in the agenda, council consideration requests.

Um, and they are all a prior council consideration request from the previous term.

They cover a right wide range of um of topics and policies, and our plan as we go through the presentation is to do a deal with them one at a time.

Um they're grouped by the agenda um um by staff recommendations, so similar recommendations are grouped, and we're gonna we're gonna try to that different format.

Um and and per the governance or per this per the ordinance, um the governance committee can refer CCRs as the mayor mentioned for additional financial and legal uh and appropriate department review and come back to the governance committee no later than 90 days.

Uh number two, it can assign a council consideration request to a council committee, the full council, the B session, um, or an A session.

Number three, it can refer the council consideration request to the manager's office to be included in upcoming budget goal setting sessions.

Um, and number four, it can uh vote to remove the the council consideration request from further consideration.

The ordinance lists reasons to remove a CCR.

Um as uh number one uh something that has already been acting in enacted by state or federal legislation.

Two, that the request requested action is already implemented or in the process of being implemented by the city.

Three, uh, in those cases where state or federal legislation may preempt the action that's requested in the council consideration request.

And then uh finally, number four, the governance committee determines for whatever the policy reasons are discussion, is that action uh should not be recommended um for any further.

Um next slide.

So and and uh thank you, Mayor, for pointing some of this stuff.

I went as the mayor and I talked uh about the preparation around this additional considerations, and as the mayor mentioned, these are we've done cursory reviews on these items, and um I know you all will be additionally additionally discussing other considerations potentially not explicitly uh in the ordinance, and this is just based on my conversation with some of you, things like budget implications, uh legal issues, uh feasibility of implementation, um, and other considerations uh similar to as the mayor mentioned about what are we trying to address and who's best suited to to address it.

So today uh we'll be going through these presentations and looking for the councils or the committee's follow-up and direction.

And uh, mayor, with that, we're gonna start with John Peterick on item number two.

Um this is um one of the items that the the first two items are items that we're recommending proceed um and um straight away to council in two different ways.

Thank you.

Thank you, Eric.

Good morning, mayor, good morning, council members.

We'll start on item two.

This is Tuskegee Airmen Memorial Way.

So this item was submitted in July of 2025 by Council District 2, and the request is to honor the Tuskegee Airmen and their service to the United States of America by adding a memorial designation to a portion of Iowa Street between Cherry and South Palmetto Street.

Importantly, this wouldn't officially change the name of the street, just as simply a memorial designation for a portion of that street.

Staff would recommend that we start the review process.

That would include technical review of the street, hosting a public meeting, uh having this presented to the historic design and review commission, having it presented to the planning commission, and ultimately coming back to city council for approval in December of 2025.

We think that process will take about four to six weeks after approved to get it in place, and development services would be the lead department on this item.

We would recommend this goes to a session for approval.

We're available for any questions, Mayor.

Um thank you.

Uh, this was submitted by Councilman McKee Rodriguez.

Would you like to say anything?

Absolutely, thank you, Mayor.

Um, thank you for the presentation.

Uh, this item comes at the request of constituents who came into my office wishing to honor the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen and their extraordinary service to uh the United States of America, specifically through a memorial way designation on Iowa Street between Cherry and South Palmetto, which you just heard.

Um these men not only broke barriers in the skies, but also on the ground, challenging discrimination and paving the way for future generations of black service members and aviators, recognizing their contributions here in San Antonio, a city with very deep military roots as both fitting and long overdue.

So, in line with uh in alignment with staff's recommendation, I move to send this item to an A session for approval.

Second there being no further discussion, we have a motion and a second to approve the staff recommendation.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed motion carries.

Uh let's move on to item number three.

Madam Clerk, please read the caption for item three.

Item number three is a council consideration request from Terry Castillo District 5 on Coach Popovich Day.

Okay, is there a staff presentation?

Sorry.

Good morning, Jamie Nietel, assistant city clerk.

Um Councilmember Castillo submitted a CCR on May 7th, requesting for January 28th to be considered as cook Coach Popovich Day.

This request would acknowledge Coach Popovich on court accomplishments and his commitment to San Antonio community.

This is the definition for a proclamation that's online.

The ceremonial process begins with an online submission by the requester.

OCC reviews each request to ensure it meets the guidelines such as timing, language, and appropriateness.

OCC coordinates with stakeholders and makes a recommendation.

Then the mayor's office bets ceremonials, the ceremonial recommended by OCC.

If approved, OCC prepares a proclamation for the mayor's signature.

The proclamation is then presented at City Council or at the organization's event.

Even though this isn't following the exact process or definition, staff recommends that the mayor present a ceremonial proclamation to declare January 28th, 2026 as Coach Greg Popovich day, and call for acts of service on that day.

Do you have any questions?

Actually is the council member Castillo here if she'd like to provide comments.

She's able to morning everyone, Councilmember Terry Castillo, very proud to represent the West and Southwest side of the City of San Antonio and District 5 is supportive of the staff recommendation as it affirms Coach Pop's accomplishments on and off the court.

The request was drafted intentionally to include acts of service on the day of recognition because coach is not only a person who seeks out praise, he has always preached the importance of kindness in giving back to the community.

And what we heard from San Antonio residents is the need for us to honor Coach Popovich, and I believe there's no greater way than an act of service.

Uh and that's what this um uh recommendation will highlight.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you.

Staff is recommending this item to be a ceremonial proclamation.

Can I get a motion so we can get in discussion, begin discussion?

Second.

Okay, great.

There being no go ahead.

Do you just have something else?

I I just want to thank Councilman Castillo and I do want us to consider uh if we are going to have if it's I believe that's a Wednesday, and if we do present that at City Hall or do the presentation, it's part of our um our public comment instead of uh an A session.

So I'm just putting that out there beforehand.

Thank you.

Okay.

Got it.

There being no further discussion.

We have a motion and a second to approve the staff recommendation.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Okay, the motion carries.

Uh let's move on to item number four.

Madam Clerk, please read the caption.

Item number four is a council consideration request by council member Marina Aldarete Gavito, District 7 on a utility and fiber projects accountability plan.

Mayor and Council members, this uh CCR was submitted in May of 2025 by District 7.

Um, it's a consideration of utility and fiber projects and creating an accountability plan around a streamlined process for communicating about upcoming work to residents and council offices.

Other requests specifically asked for an official plan uh from utility and fiber companies about how they're gonna proactively share projects and outages through the use of robocall, social media, targeted flyers, um, how they're gonna reach out to the community specifically.

It also asks for the formalization of a requirement between the city as the holder of the right-of-way and the utility companies and fiber companies in how they communicate not only to council offices, but um to the community.

Um, it also asks for us to identify and implement methods for holding the utility and fiber companies accountable for their lack of communication with residents and the city and council offices, and additionally to establish an agreement between the city, CPS, and fiber companies to coordinate work when possible.

Some considerations regarding the CCR.

Um additional staff time and resources may be required to review utility and fiber company communication plans.

Um the potential uh right-of-way permit fees might need to be increased to cover the uh additional monitoring costs.

I would point out that telecom companies are exempt from right-of-way fees and inspection fees because of state law.

So there's a potential for the need to increase revenue by maybe taking a look at fines due to non-compliance in that route.

The legal considerations which I just mentioned is that municipalities cannot charge certain telecom providers for access to the right-of-way.

And additionally, city code also exempts telecom providers from having to pay right-of-way fees in line with state law.

Currently, I just want to highlight some current efforts and policies that are in place.

Additionally, there are communication requirements for permit holders, which include a 30-day advanced notice, which include an electronic message board seven days prior to starting work.

It includes door hangers, three days prior to impacting residents, businesses, and schools.

It includes permanent signage while construction is ongoing with the utility name, the contractor name, contact details, those sorts of things.

Additionally, public works and the utility and right-of-way teams collaborate and create a shared place to share information about upcoming utility work through project information forms.

Public works continuously engages and coordinates with external partners and utilities to try and ensure effective execution of these projects.

We have consistent and ongoing project meet project meetings at all levels of staff to ensure that we're coordinated across projects.

Additionally, there's a map published online, which is a central repository of all right-of-way permits that are active at the time.

And there's a list of our external partners there for your review.

Next steps for the CCR staff would recommend referring this item to the Transportation Infrastructure Committee and Public Works will be the lead for this item.

Good morning.

Thanks so much for y'all's time today.

So yes, I submitted this utility fiber and projects accountability plan at the request of our residents.

It is aimed at improving transparency and coordination between the City of San Antonio utility providers, including CPSOs and our fiber companies.

Our neighbors and residents deserve to know when and why work is being done on their streets and when service interruptions may occur.

This proposal is about partnership.

It's about ensuring our city functions efficiently and effectively, and that our residents stay informed.

For example, in Braun Station East neighborhood in District 7, 1 street, Dragon Street was impacted by five different projects between 2018 and 2024.

Additionally, an intersecting street knighthood had three different projects completed between 2020 and 2024.

This volume of work done in such short periods of time is unacceptable and places a lot of stress on our residents when they're constantly having to face construction delays.

Thank you, John, for um outlining what we were calling for specifically.

One of the things I did want to call out is the accountability measures.

Far too many times, you know, when uh XYZ telecom company comes in and installs fiber, our residents are left hanging, you know, with either their lawn uh broken or you know, just things messed up.

And so we we do need uh an accountability measure in place to hold these to hold uh companies accountable.

And one of the things that I I don't think was really addressed in in um in the presentation, the a big aim of this CCR is like advanced notification of when things are going to be happening so that way we prevent tearing up the streets again and again and again.

You know, it it is disruptive to our residents who are constantly driving around construction, so all we're asking to do is left hand knows what the right hand is doing well in advance so that way we're uh disrupting our our residents less.

Uh our city and our residents need fewer surprises and quicker, clearer communication so that they can stay informed.

That's all I have.

Thank you.

Staff is recommending referring to the item to the transportation infrastructure committee.

Can I get a motion so we may begin discussion?

Second.

Okay.

Um, can I ask you just a follow up a couple of follow-up questions?

I certainly appreciate the intent of this.

Um, I want to make sure based on the staff's recommendation, it shows, I guess, in your data analysis and your collection that you've seen that this is kind of a widespread city problem, or is this a vendor challenge?

How would you describe the scope of this problem?

Yeah, I mean, I think that there are some specific challenges around communication in specific locations.

It has ranged across the city.

But there was some initial deployment that then by one vendor that had to be repositioned where it was placed in the right-of-way, right?

So there were some uh communities and neighborhoods that received multiple layers of construction for the same utility, and so um there was a lot of presence because of that.

Um so I do think that there are some improvements to be made.

Um, and so I I look forward to the work ahead.

Uh John, I have a question real quick.

Um, this is contingent.

Uh these requirements would be placed on trying to obtain a permit to do work in the right-of-way.

I think that's the intent of the CCR.

I don't know that that could be achieved legally, Councilman.

So I mean, I think we're coming at this from the place of cooperation, a spirit of collaboration.

Sure.

Um, we I mean, as illustrated, we we cannot require uh the telecommunications companies to do anything because of the the the way that the laws are written, right?

And we have to provide access to the right-of-way.

We can't say no, you can't have it if you don't do X.

Yeah, I think you know, hopefully the committee can talk about that, and also how do you um trust but verify, right?

Because I saw the electronic billboard uh requirement.

I don't think I've seen that when that's happened before.

So yeah, just interested in that discussion.

Yeah, thank you.

Uh Councilmember Viewedon.

Uh this one I I struggled with a little John, just because I felt it felt more to PCDC than transportation, but I understand it came through transportation.

So I really think uh I'm fine with moving it forward and having the transportation committee take a look at it.

I'm not sure and legally if we could do this.

This may need to come to a B session.

I think before it comes to an A session, simply because it overlaps with a few of other committees, and I am concerned about the aspect of what we can and can't make our fiber companies do.

Um and having a one-size fits all, which does not necessarily work in the southern sector because of our, and you know this more than anything.

A lot of what we have is overhead uh out of necessity because the ground would they would be there for months trying to um to try and uh make sure the structure's there so it can last.

So that that's the only thing I I'm I'm fine with moving this forward.

I'm trust the transportation committee, but I do think this would need a B session.

So looking forward to uh see what transportation does with that.

Councilmember uh McKee Rodriguez.

Thank you.

Uh thank you for the presentation and uh thank you to councilwoman uh Already Covito for being here.

Um comments heard uh as chair of the transportation infrastructure infrastructure committee.

Um I definitely value receiving uh full council's feedback before sending items to A session, so that'll be communicated during the meeting.

I am interested in what work is going to happen.

What is staff going to do between now and the committee the meeting that this is presented?

Yeah, I think if the item is moved forward, councilman, we'll begin conversations with each of those companies that work within our right-of-ways to help establish uh the baseline for for what is acceptable and present it to the committee for feedback and move forward from there.

And do you have a um I guess what I'm interested in?

I feel like I say the word ecosystem a lot now, but the ecosystem of telecom providers and which one specifically we could not uh regulate in this way.

Yeah, I can provide a list of who is available to use the right-of-way without those permit fees.

Absolutely.

Okay, thank you.

Um, one of the things I'd also ask you as we move this forward is to to provide to the committee, and then just you send us a coffee as well.

Is is an understanding of any data that you have on the actual scale of this problem.

Um, I can certainly appreciate what um uh was presented um uh in in D7, but I think it will help the committee understand the scale of this problem.

Um maybe it's actually you know specific to a couple of vendors and not necessarily a citywide issue.

So at least welcome having having that for their context.

Okay, no further discussion.

Uh there's a motion um to move uh to approve this rather than move this to the transportation um and infrastructure committee.

Um please vote.

No, all in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Okay.

Motion carries.

Madam Clerk, please read the caption for item number five.

Item number five is a council consideration request by council member Terry Castillo, District Five on enhancing local construction trades.

Mayor and council members, the CCR was submitted in April of 2025 by District 5.

Um it asks for staff to develop a construction training program policy for all City of San Antonio sponsored construction projects, over 10 million dollars, and require a 35% of the total workforce associated with the construction of the project to be current enrollees or graduates of the U.S.

Department of Labor's registered apprenticeship program or to be Department of Labor certified in the bilingual training program.

Excuse me.

So the request additionally asked for us to ensure that projects less than 10 million dollars also carry a trainee requirement scaled to the construction budget amount.

Additionally to create a construction readiness pipeline to include ready-to-work approved organizations who would provide pre-employment and pre-apprentip and apprenticeship readiness training so that folks would be ready to enter into the the uh workforce as a part of these projects.

In addition, um, that apprentices are enrolled in the DOL registered apprenticeship program would be paid a percentage of the prevailing journeyman wage rate as specified in the apprenticeship program uh for that trade, but may not be paid less than the city's approved minimum wage.

So some very specific uh requirements around wages for the folks who are in this apprenticeship program.

Um, some considerations to think about uh budgetarily.

Um, this would take additional staff time by the uh client department, so whichever department has the construction project, uh, and they would be required to monitor and ensure compliance of these policies and proceed procedures if implemented and allow some sort of enforcement for each of those pieces of compliance.

Um potentially bids and proposals might see a cost increase as specific wages could be required to be paid, uh, both by prime contractors and subcontractors.

Um additional legal uh considerations, reliance on the programs that exist today that are certified by the federal government should be allowable, but we should be mindful that changes to those certifications by this administration's or future administrations are possible.

So if we tie ourselves to those, uh there's some considerations to think about.

Next step, staff would recommend this item be referred to the economic and workforce development committee to further evaluate enacting an apprenticeship uh requirement policy for all city-funded construction projects.

Staff would also recommend that the city engaged a balanced labor and construction stakeholder group to discuss the development development of this policy.

The leads for this item would be capital delivery, finance, workforce development.

Thank you.

Uh thank you.

This is a council consideration request that the district five team worked in collaboration with labor and in conversation with Alex and Mike.

So thank y'all for uh's work and leadership on this issue.

District five is supportive of staff's recommendation.

The CCR again was drafted in partnership with Labor based on San Antonio's apprenticeship aspirations to upskill and increase wages for local workers.

The prevalence of this of construction jobs in San Antonio and the billions of dollars in construction contracts awarded by the city of San Antonio, not only would the higher minimum threshold mean more San Antonio workers working on COSA construction projects, but this also means more local workers having more apprenticeship and upskill opportunities.

Labor has worked on an effort similar to this in Austin, uh, and they received support from industry.

So I'm supportive of staff's recommendation and hope the committee considers staff's recommendation to move to EWDC.

Thank you.

Staff is recommending this item be referred to the economic and workforce development committee.

Can I get a motion so we may begin discussion?

I make a motion to approve.

Okay.

Okay.

Um as the chair of that committee, one of the things uh councilwoman, uh, I think is going to be important for us to understand is uh ensuring we've got a pipeline that is strong enough to potentially meet this requirement, and then certainly um helping us as a community understand um any other you know cost impacts or or potential delays as a result of that pipeline potentially not being robust enough.

Um, if you've done any of that analysis already, that can help maybe inform some of this initial discussion, that'd be helpful.

Or and the councilwoman, if if you I know you referenced the experience in Austin.

Or and and the councilwoman, if if you I know you referenced the experience in Austin, if any of that is helpful for us to understand at this stage too, please share either one of you.

Again, just going back, right?

I think there's opportunity for staff, and I know they've already examined and in conversation with Mike, we have looked at the Austin model to determine uh what was legal and what the opportunity here is in the city of San Antonio.

Sure, sure.

Yeah, Mayor I think I think we have some additional work to do to understand the the scope of the pipeline at this point.

We have we have not completed that work.

Mayor, I was just gonna add as part of the conversation uh at the committee level.

You know, one way to ascertain those things sometimes looking at other cities isn't gonna really inform you, but but one way to ascertain that is to do a pilot.

Um, and that better informs on potential impacts, but that that could be something that the committee could talk about.

Great.

Any other comments?

Go ahead.

Yeah, no, thank you, Mayor, and uh thank you for that information.

And I think um Eric still might thunder is uh we would be looking at pilots, and uh I think we need to look at how we work together as we move forward with the other entities that are doing construction here, the other government entities that are doing that, including the county and the school districts.

Um we have that opportunity in I think, of course, I'm gonna say district three, but we have that opportunity throughout the city to look at programs that can uh that we can pilot this to see how it works.

So I look forward to to uh moving this forward so EWDC can work on this.

Thank you.

Great.

Anything else you make?

Councilman Amungio.

Yes, thank you.

I appreciate the CCR.

And uh there's a great example.

I was toured a multifamily property downtown, and it's actually owned by the investment group uh of AFSME.

And one of the requirements is that whenever there's any construction that they do uh as a union, it all has to be union jobs.

And they told me, you know, there's no one that does a has a union job that does plaster anymore, right?

That's no longer uh a trade.

So they were actually forced to do an apprenticeship program to get folks uh on board to be able to do those projects.

So I think that's a great example of something that's already been done locally.

So I look forward to seeing this at the committee.

Councilman.

Thank you.

I just want to be clear that a part of staff's recommendation is to engage a balanced labor and uh construction stakeholder group.

Um, and I want to be sure that the council committee uh will have the opportunity to weigh in on what that looks like because I just want to acknowledge that labor has gotten the short end of the stick too often, as well as a number of uh impacted groups.

Yeah, councilman.

I we believe that we'll come up with a draft for you to review and present to the committee that is both uh you know, labor and construction balanced.

Thank you.

I'm also actually pretty excited about this CCR.

Um, I don't know if anyone else watches PBS News hour, but um they really they just did a recent segment on it, they called it the tool belt generation, uh, which are those folks that are coming just coming out of high school that are really looking for something, frankly, that's a little bit more um where they can use their hands, right?

And so these kinds of opportunities where I mean, yes, college is expensive, folks are looking for a different path, um, and we want, and frankly, we need that pipeline as that as we're also looking at um unfortunately the impacts of of immigration policies that are making it more expensive for labor.

So the ways in which we can have a healthy pipeline um and frankly pay folks a living wage is is really important.

So I appreciate the councilwoman for the uh for the CCR and um as just foot stomped by my my colleague here, making sure that we hear from um all stakeholders stakeholders uh that would be impacted by this.

Okay.

Um so there is a motion um to move this toward the economic and workforce development committee.

Um all those in favor?

Aye opposed okay.

Motion passes.

Thank you.

Uh Madam Clerk, please read item number six.

Item number six is a council consideration request to create a housing voucher incentive program.

Mayor and council, uh, this item was submitted in April of 2025 by Council District 6.

Um requests that a housing voucher program be created.

Um the housing voucher program is the largest rental assistance program in the country.

The program aims to make private rental housing affordable to people with low incomes, and the vouchers pay the difference between the rent and the 30% of the qualifying tenant's income.

Landlords are not required to accept vouchers unless as a funding condition of the project.

The request that we received asks that the city uh create a COSA sponsored program to provide bridge funding for initial payments to landlords if they are not submitted in a timely manner by HUD or a housing authority to additionally provide gap funding to landlords if HUD's fair market value is lower than their market rents in the area, and to seek out solutions for other issues related to voucher programs such as inspections.

Some considerations as we think about the CCR, some very preliminary analysis estimates that this program would cost approximately $3.7 million annually, and that would be broken down in 1.5 million dollars in annual bridge funding allocation and a $2.2 million allocation for annual gap funding.

A consideration is that HUD regulations prohibit prohibit rent payments in excess of the established limits.

So financial support may need to be structured to meet HUD compliance standards.

Next steps for this CCR staff would recommend this item go to the planning and community development committee.

Staff will coordinate with Opportunity Home, and the lead of this effort would be the neighborhood and housing services department.

Councilmember Castillo, if you'd like to speak on this item.

Thank you, Mayor.

District 5 is supportive of staff's recommendation.

This request was drafted with feedback from housing voucher holders and housing providers, and in collaboration with the San Antonio Apartment Association regarding the ongoing concerns with delays in voucher payments by HUD due to inspections and other administrative issues and underpayment caused by miscalculations in HUD's fair market rents.

Both the delays and underpayments deter potential housing providers from accepting vouchers, which limits the number of rental properties voucher holders can have access to across the city.

It aligns with the ongoing strategic housing implementation plan and the affordable housing efforts to provide a cost-effective solution compared to constructing even more affordable units and leveraging existing resources and funding, the voucher funding.

It's also again in alignment with the strategic housing implementation goal of increasing the number of eligible residents in San Antonio to be able to utilize housing choice vouchers by increasing the supply of vouchers, decreasing wait time, and increasing voucher access at more properties across the city of San Antonio.

Thank you.

Staff is recommending this item be referred to the planning and community development committee.

Can I get a motion so we may begin discussion?

Okay.

Um it sounds like a lot of the challenge with this issue is is on the HUD side, um, right, and they're the actions that they're taking or or not taking in a timely fashion.

Can can you speak a little bit to what our engagement has been thus far with the with our federal partners to see how we might be able to help ourselves on that end?

Mayor, we had some initial conversations with HUD uh when this item was first created.

Um, as we ramped up to the most recent presentation, um obviously there's uh a federal shutdown that has occurred.

So when thinking about specific requirements, um, we've had to go on our past guidance and haven't had more recent communication.

Um, so because they're not in the office receiving phone calls at this point.

So to kind of check ourselves on the current, you know, standards of what we would need to think about.

We haven't been able to do that.

Okay, what was the the last discussion that we had with them though?

What where did that land?

I'll let Veronica speak to that in depth, please.

Most recently with our public housing authorities who are very familiar with administering the voucher program, and the conversations have been that it continues to be an issue uh with the payments.

They've done a lot of progress to do internal updates to try and get those payments out faster to landlords, especially when they take on a new housing voucher tenant.

Now they can get them out in as little as 17 days, though most payments are more like 30 days.

Um, so that's one improvement that they've made.

Um, the other issue with the funding recommendations, how much HUD pays and allows for fair market value.

Um, the housing authorities can go slightly above that, up to 10% above, and in certain areas of the city they're willing to do that.

Um, but there are as John Peter mentioned, there are some considerations with HUD rules and compliance with going much more above what reasonable rent for the area would be.

So those are some things we're gonna have to look at with specifically the way the CCR recommends administering incentives, um, but we'll work closely with the housing authorities on maybe other alternatives that could be maybe one-time payments to landlords, so that we're the whole goal is to try and encourage accepting more voucher holders.

Um, are you concerned at all about um inflating rent prices as a result of this program?

If I'm reading into your comments, I mean that could definitely be a consideration.

We want to make sure that the rents that are being requested are reasonable rents, so there's some additional analysis we would have to do again, especially targeted zip codes of the city to make sure what that is, and there'd have to be some caution that we don't go above what HUD would allow a landlord to accept.

And again, I want to acknowledge the both housing authorities opportunity home and the housing authority of Bear County who've done some analysis in parts of the city to try and go above what HUD fair market value is.

Again, up to 10% above that, which they can legally do.

But going even beyond that was something that we'd have to consider of how incentives would be structured for landlords.

Okay.

And the 3.7 million is just based on what current demand is, is that right?

It's based on that right now.

There are 800 vouchers that hold that are unused and taking an approximate how much more a month could be incentivized times three months, and taking some averages based on input from the housing authority.

Those are very initial conservative estimates, and depending on how we truly structure the incentives, may change those numbers.

Okay.

Let me go around the room here.

Um councilman.

Yes, thank you.

I appreciate the CCR also.

I think it's uh it's definitely a start to a larger conversation in the community.

And I've also spoken to the apartment association, which is here today.

And you know, they've told us, and I've heard from people who operate that over time it's gotten more difficult with the authority, housing authority, and people have stopped doing participating in the voucher program, which basically puts more folks in the waiting list, which also goes into what we're doing with our housing bond and doing multifamily projects and and working on those things.

So the more that the private market can accept the vouchers and get folks into homes that already exist, um, I think certainly lowers the demand that we will have for our funds going forward.

So I think it's definitely a start to conversation on what could happen.

I think Opportunity Home is definitely a willing partner and they'll have to be.

Um especially with the inspection section of it.

Um, you know, I had a resident when I was a staffer uh who was on the verge of eviction uh because there were payment issues to her apartment complex with the housing authority.

Uh and that was just a devastating situation that you know could be avoided.

Uh and so I think this is just a kind of a start to that conversation.

And I think ultimately it it probably is a lot more money than what we're initially looking at, but I think if people get the messaging out there that the city is working with the develop the housing authority, um the momentum can get there to do spur them in the private market.

So I look forward to discussing that at PCDC.

Yeah, um, I put my signature on this C CR uh, and I just want to make sure that in the current climate PCDC takes uh consideration that and I know Veronica, you were here when HUD came to visit Brooks, and I think they're um they're looking more at community, so making sure we're understanding that we're trying to get community into their homes and um again looking at um what challenges we face as we go into um into the the new economy as as it moves forward.

So we do want to be mindful of that, but set expectations for those private landlords also.

And so uh I'll look forward to seeing what comes out of PCDC.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Councilman.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you for the presentation.

Uh thank you, Councilman Castillo for uh filing this request.

Um I look forward to uh the committee uh chaired by Councilman Mungia and our councilman Castillo, Councilmember Galvan, and uh councilman council member core all serve on this committee.

Um I'm sure that they'll come up with a uh great recommendation for full council eventually.

Um I know that the 3.7 million dollars are a little rough to look at, especially considering we just navigated the first of many years of budget deficit, but uh often we have to uh and I believe I've heard the mayor say this on a number of occasions is we have to look at the opportunity cost, what happens should we not uh fund this fund this program or uh engage in this effort that's been proposed uh thoughtfully.

And so I look forward to eventually having an opportunity to support this beyond governance.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um so as we work on this issue uh at the committee level, one of the things that I I shared with the mayor the other day, and I've had a preliminary conversation with staff, and councilman, you just mentioned it.

You know, there's there's a dent, there's there's there's obviously a gap that that exists, whether it is um uh delays or underpayments or inspections, but um you know, from the staff perspective, as we go through the committee, we're gonna work closely with our opportunity home because there may be other ways to deal with this issue, whether they be systemic or process um or working with HUD or advocating with the federal government before we go immediately to the estimated 3.7 million dollars.

So I think it's that's part of our due diligence due diligence that we'll do at the committee because I think we've all heard bits and pieces just like you mentioned, Councilman, and and uh we'll make sure that we'll work closely with Opportunity Home and engage them with the committee as well.

Exactly.

I mean you I if it's not I'm saying good morning, and do you know that we have 150 million dollar budget gap in FY27?

That's kind of how I introduce myself to folks nowadays, Eric.

And so to your point, as we're kind of thinking about that gap in the in the in the back of our head.

One of the other things I'd like uh to be provided to the to the planning committee as uh as they look at this as well is what are some other incentives that we can provide to some of these um these homeowners, these um uh I mean landlords essentially that would incentivize them to take these vouchers.

Um 800 is is is a lot more than I think um folks would would realize and and and I would think is not a number that you hear in other communities.

So, how might we incentivize them, especially and again, maybe it's a tiered you know, aspect uh if you've got X number of units over this amount, this is your incentive, and if it goes higher than that, um just because they control so much of the supply, we really want them to um to take these vouchers.

Um there may be also an opportunity when it comes to zip codes, right?

Certain parts of our community that we know um uh there may be a large opportunity to take these.

So I'd please make sure that that information is provided to to the committee for their awareness because um, as mentioned, 3.7 million is is a lot as we're already looking at a 150 million dollar budget gap in 27.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh there's a motion and a second uh to refer this item to the planning and community development committee.

Um all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Okay, motion passes.

Excuse me.

Uh Madam Clerk, please read the caption for item seven.

Item number seven is a council consideration request from Councilmember Marina Aldarete Gavito, District 7 on city support for teachers and school support staff.

Good morning, Mayor and Council.

Uh, this uh council consideration request was submitted back in March of 2025 by council by council district seven.

So the specific request of the CCR is for the city to formalize a plan that supports teachers and those working in the education system through targeted efforts that include partnering with local businesses, support teacher well-being and advocacy.

It also uh the CCR also requests that the city council receives a biannual update on the city's commission on education that is currently overseen by our Department of Human Services.

Some considerations for the CCR.

Uh currently the city does not have staff dedicated to work directly to support teacher and school staff.

Historically, the city's investments have been primarily focused on providing support to students in our community.

Uh there are several commissions that the city currently has that target education, including the commission on education that is comprised of 11 members appointed by each council member and the mayor.

We also have the San Antonio Youth Commission that has 22 members.

There's two per council districts and two representatives appointed by the mayor.

And there's also the higher education student advisory board that is comprised of 11 members, again, one uh appointed by each council member and one by the mayor and council.

Um the commission on education members as well as members of the small advisory commission, another commission of the city with um 15 representatives today, could potentially assist in conducting outreach to business owners and chambers of commerce to participate, understanding businesses themselves are struggling with the global economy and how we can support our teachers and those school staff as well.

Um another consideration is currently our government affairs department of the city of San Antonio does not track uh legislation specifically supporting teachers and support staff.

That'll be something that would be new uh for the city.

So what we are recommending is to move the CCR to the educational opportunities council committee.

We believe that working with our human services department and economic development, we can provide some alternatives at no cost to the city that can support our teachers and those um uh school staff as well.

Um, and that concludes my presentation.

Thank you, Mayor.

You had me at no cost.

The sponsor of the CCR is uh is here, Councilman, if you'd like to say a few words.

Thank you.

I uh filed this proposal to support educators and school staff in response to ongoing teacher shortages, budget constraints, budget constraints, and legislative pressures affecting our local schools.

While recognizing that the responsibility for systemic change largely rests with state government and local school boards, I'm advocating that the city of San Antonio should seek to contribute supportive measures that alleviate some of the burdens placed on our teachers and school staff, and yes, at no cost.

Um thank you, Maria, for outlining what the proposed plan includes.

Um I do do appreciate y'all's considerations of how we can work with SPAC and the higher education student advisory board to make it work at no cost to the city.

Uh, we all know that our educator our educators shape the future of our community, and we must do our part to support them.

This initiative ensures that San Antonio stands with its teachers through action and not just wards.

I'm grateful for the new educational opportunities committee.

I know that it's chaired by councilman councilman Rick Galvan and uh Councilman McKee Rodriguez, Councilman Munkia, and Councilwoman Castillo all sit on that.

And I'm I'm also grateful to and I want to thank my colleagues for their shared commitment to our educators.

I look forward to continuing our collective work to ensure San Antonio stands firmly with its teachers.

Thank you.

Staff is recommending referring the item to the educational opportunities committee.

Can I get a motion so we may we may begin discussion?

Second.

Thursday.

You got it?

That's right.

Councilman McKee Rodriguez seconded.

Okay, uh, we'll go around the room for discussion.

Um, Councilman Mungia.

Yeah, I'm I'm interested in this, and I think um I'm glad the staff put the commissions on there, the education center youth commission and higher education student advisory board uh because they're very close to that problem.

And then uh I know on here it said that we should get some biannual um updates from the commission on education.

Uh and and Debbie, do they correct me if I'm I thought the commissions had to provide some sort of update to council on an annual basis already?

All city boards and commissions do provide annual reports uh to the council.

Um I'm thinking that the education partnership may have to get my staff to help.

Are they a city board?

I don't think they're a city board, so they would not be required.

Sure.

Uh yeah, I know we have a connection to the education partnership board as well.

So I think there's a lot of folks um in the community that work on this that could give us some ideas on how best to support teachers uh with a very limited financial obligation on our part.

Um, and because you know, of course, they're all residents, and we have a teacher up here sitting with us who can give some feedback on that.

And you know, Councilman uh McKee Rodriguez's uh other policy that he had talked about, which was a program to help um teachers buy down homes, you know, that's a that's a very tangible outcome of a way to help teachers in their situation.

Um so I'm hoping the committee, which why I'm supportive of sending this to the education committee, can kind of hone in on that a little bit more and and see if there's programs that we can carve out specialty for teachers, um, or if it's you know partnering with some sort of media or or uh corporation to help with this recognize some folks.

Um so I think it's a good committee discussion.

Council member Viegeran.

Yeah, I have I have major issues with this uh because uh it is not within our purview.

This should be school districts, council members should be working within the school districts that that sit in their district.

Uh why was it recommended to move forward when there that when we have entities already?

Uh, why was it moved?

Why was it recommended to move forward for the committee?

Can you tell me that, Maria?

Yes, councilwoman.

So what we discuss internally is that we can find opportunities uh you utilize in some of our commissions, specifically those that uh work with businesses to see we can facilitate uh opportunities to support teachers.

We understand that is not within our purview of the city of San Antonio, but again, we felt it could be a good opportunity to try to facilitate those opportunities.

The reason I have problems with this is because I have been doing a teacher back to school giveaway for the last three years because that is my district and my district's priorities.

I have an issue of going into other districts that may have a community-led opportunity or another organization doing that and saying we're the city of San Antonio, we're going to tell you how to do it.

That that I'm not okay with that, and that is not that is not welcomed by some school districts.

Um and yes, I'm thinking personally about my some of my school districts in the southern sector.

If I told them the city's gonna do this now.

So I I am unhappy that that city staff did not do more due diligence and what was going in within the 10 districts and the 16 school districts that we have here, and the uh and the charters and and the um private schools that we have in the area.

So I I I've got I don't understand why if we knew we had organizations doing this, why we're sending it as a task for the the um the new committee.

But if y'all want to send that as a task forward, that's fine.

But from moving forward from this point when it's regarding governance and council committee recommendations, I need the council to be able to say, I need the city staff to be able to tell this governance committee, this is already being done.

We don't recommend it forward.

And I'll have a lot to say about item 12 at the end of of this presentation, but right now I'm still at a loss of how we move this forward with 16 school districts with uh um a let's just say this here.

Education community it can move forward without my support.

Education community can do that, but I mean this is not my purview, and I know some of my council uh some of my school boards are not gonna be happy with this.

So um thank you.

Go ahead.

Uh ma'am.

I'm Rebecca Flores.

I'm the education program administrator, and I oversee our commissions, and so I can talk about the conversations that we've had on this, and it is not to tell school districts what to do.

A lot of this started.

We literally were walking down um Houston Street, and we kept seeing 10% discount for military folks, and we were like, why not the teachers?

And that really was the conversation of what more can the city of San Antonio do to show that we are supportive of our teachers, supportive of our school staff.

It was no way intended as a former educator, no way intended to tell school districts what to do.

And although it is not the city's purview, it actually is within the purview of the commission on education and the youth the higher ed and the youth commission to oversee and make recommendations to council and the mayor on ways to support schools and teachers.

Thank you.

Um Eric, how many positions did we not fund in human services and I can economic development in order to close our budget gap in 26?

I asked because right now we don't have any city staff that are currently working to do this, but it sounds like we may need to dedicate some city staff resources to do that.

So, how many did we just not fund in those two departments to close that gap?

We there were there were uh two or three in economic development that we did not fund.

Um I'm not remembering off the top of my head on human services, but your point is is well made, Mayor, that this would take some effort.

Um, and and that's one of the reasons why as part of the recommendation um to go to the committee, one of the based on our cursory review that we could incorporate it within um existing staff time with SPEC with the small business advisory group.

Um and and that has been in some cases the tip of the spear as it relates to uh business friendly or um partnership with the business with the small business community, and and how could we incorporate just as Rebecca said attributes that would benefit teachers, pure and simple.

But that was based on a cursory review.

Um Councilman McKee Rodriguez.

Thank you, Mayor, and thank you, uh, councilman for uh filing the CCR.

I I have a few thoughts.

So one is the CCR is fairly broad in scope, and I'm sure that was intentional, uh, and I do appreciate the spirit of it.

Sometimes we know that we want to tackle an issue as uh as a council, and so we draft a CCR so that we may agendize a discussion to address that issue.

Um so this CCR essentially charges staff to come up with a proposal to reduce the burden on teachers and staff, but doesn't necessarily um what's the what's the word in medicine when you prescribe it?

Doesn't necessarily prescribe measures uh aside from an annual briefing.

Uh and it sounds like staff does recommend that the business community create those opportunities through the SBAC committee and that we engage in those discussions.

And so for all those reasons, I do hear the concern from Councilwoman Via Grand.

And I want to clarify what we and so the question I'm about to ask hopes to clarify what we send forward to the committee and maybe make an amendment to the motion if if that's necessary.

So the things that we are recommending that the committee take on is potentially SBAC and the Commission on Education, participating in a workshop or discussion with the education opportunities committee to determine what partnerships may be created to support teachers, a biannual or annual update from the commission to the full council to be session, and potentially begin tracking legislation that will impact our public education system.

So council may provide feedback as a part of our legislative agenda.

Are those three things that I know that we're the motion is to send it the CCR.

I would like to send those three things specifically.

Does that require a motion to or an amendment?

If I want to more narrow the scope.

You you want to narrow it to the three things we said in the presentation?

Yes.

No, it doesn't.

Because we that's part of the presentation as part of the item before you.

I got you.

So what is the work that's going to happen for this CCR ahead of the ahead of it being presented to the committee?

Um in sketching out the the work and and um those two things at a minimum.

The the one the the one issue that I I think that um we haven't spent a lot of time on is us beginning to strack track federal and state policies affecting teacher uh teachers and education.

That is a whole other issue that we normally don't get in the middle of, other than periodically during the legislative session when there are education related questions that come up in our in our legislative briefings.

We do not do that, nor we staff that do that.

I I think that one we need to spend a little bit of time thinking through how we can focus on maybe the highlights or or the matters of most concern of the council, but we've got time to do that because we've got a year and a half for the next legislative session.

For sure, and I'd certainly appreciate having that conversation specifically at the um at the educational opportunities committee.

One of the one of the reasons I always say I ran for office was because I was frustrated hearing so many of our elected officials at varying levels of government say that issues of our students and their families are not issues for the city to handle.

And I think that especially in this climate, um those decisions that are being made about about education, whether it's funding or certain policy and legislation, um, those things do have a trickling effect on so many other issues, whether it's crime, homelessness, or uh disparate health outcomes that we then later have to find ways to navigate.

And so the closer we can get to the root of the issue, I think the the better.

And so um I will support the motion.

But I want to be sure that because so much of this charge is already a part of the charge of the commission, that the discussions don't conflict at that committee.

And so I think that'll just be a uh an important conversation to have with count with uh Chair Galvan.

Thank you.

Uh the uh sponsor would like to say a few words.

Yes, thank you.

I do want to uh clarify, Councilwoman Via Gran, I I understand uh your concern about getting involved with the school boards and and the intent is not that as Rebecca rightly mentioned, you know, we go down um Houston Street or wherever, we see a lot of businesses have a 10% military discount.

We're like that that would be awesome if we could be a teacher-friendly city, San Antonio could be a teacher-friendly city, and people also see a discount for teachers as well.

I've talked to um a couple folks at different chambers and said, you know, this would require businesses to do this, you know, and um, and they've been extremely open to it, at least uh the preliminary reception to that.

Um also too, I do think it is important to to call out that one of the the um points of this CCR as Councilman McKee Rodriguez was um highlighting is that we um that the city of San Antonio start looking at legislation, state and federal legislation, and all and and with a focus of teacher supportive initiatives, you know, and that that be on our our radar.

Um it hasn't been in the past, like a fully a full focus on it, and I think it should.

Um the intent here is that teachers are a residents, and so if there isn't a better way to support them, especially right now under budget constraints under all the hoopla we're seeing at the state level, then let's support our teachers in the ways that we can.

That's the intent.

Thank you.

Um Eric, do we have any other city initiated discounts for certain groups of people or employees or classes of people?

Mayor, we do have from city employees, and I think Alex can well there's some um discounts that are offered to all city employees.

Um, but I was thinking of our bi-local initiative, which right now we work with businesses, we target some of the construction areas to try to um bring more customers into those businesses, and when they sign up for this bi-local program, they offer a 10% discount in most cases, and that helps draw in some customers.

Okay.

Um when we talk, Andy, uh, from a legal standpoint, when we talk about things that help teachers, um, it's hard to think about policies, whether you're talking about affordable housing, whether you're talking about reproductive health care, whether you're talking about housing uh, I mean education costs, things that don't affect teachers.

So can you help us understand how we would um do this in a manageable?

I'm trying to I I understand the intent of the sponsor.

I'm also trying to understand we could track these things, um, and then what?

I mean, we're having conversations in our own kind of city policies about words we can and cannot say.

Um, and so to the extent we're now um trying to understand what that means to non-city employees or non-city related policies, I want to make sure we fully understand um what tracking some of this legislation may what certainly the workload, um, but then also the actual impact once we've tracked it.

Uh uh if I understand your question correctly, Mary, that would be part of the uh the ongoing discussion would be what exactly are we gonna track both at a federal and state level that would impact teachers specifically, and then uh anything that we would do in terms of adding to our legislative agenda would have to come back to the full council.

Um so the good news is before we say anything in terms of advocating for or against any measure that would affect teachers directly, it would have to be considered by the full council.

Sure, I I think um by weighing into that, we weigh into discussions that we as a as a city have already said are a bit of a challenge.

Um that's correct, Mary.

And I I guess what the the response would be we need just need to be very uh cautious as we enter into that realm to make sure that we don't inadvertently create greater risk for the city.

But uh right now we don't have it really any framework or details that would at least prevent us from going into that direction.

So, and I also read this.

I see COSA's government affairs department currently does not track legislation specifically supporting teachers and support staff.

Would we also be tracking legislation that specifically potentially harms teachers and support staff?

I'm thinking LGBT anti-LGBTQ laws, et cetera.

Um would it also do that?

Is that the intent maybe by those happy happy to hear from the sponsor or hear from our government affairs team in terms of how we are thinking about scoping this?

Hi, Rebecca Flores again.

Um I actually used to do governmental relations for school districts, and so I get quite a number of updates from statewide and federal sources to assist with the tracking of legislation.

So it won't be just the governmental relations department doing it.

Um I just want to make a clarification that we're also looking at um things that don't also like for businesses, just the 10%.

Um, one of the things that the commission was also looking at, like every new teacher um receive a letter from the mayor welcoming them to uh the teaching profession.

And so there was a very much a myriad of ideas that the commission members had been throwing out just uh beyond just uh working with local businesses on expanding teacher incentives.

Yeah, I was gonna say, Mayor, I think to your to your question about the about the scope, that's work we have to do before we go to the final to the to the next step.

Um and I think um you know, based on Andy's answer to you, it is complicated.

Um, and we would need to be very narrowly focused on what the council committee discusses and then figure out what the impact is.

I mean tracking, I I would assume tracking legislation around um items of support for teachers would be a lot easier than tracking educational policy issues, but but I think we let the committee have that conversation, narrow the scope.

I think part of the takeaway from the governance committee conversation is that the next conversation needs to be um focused and and surgical and definitive in terms of impact and costs, and that's something that we'll make sure we ripple through to the next next side.

Actually, while I have the sponsor, do you have a and thank you again?

I think we all understand that um you know education is the great equalizer in our community, and there's a challenge um at the federal level and at the state level that is unfortunately discouraging folks from entering this very important uh profession as the daughter of a public educator.

I know how important it is that we support our teachers in as many ways as possible.

You referenced um a couple of your engagements with the chambers, and it seems like they would be great partners and and frankly have the capacity uh to lead these efforts themselves.

Um did you gauge their interest and and frankly them running with this, and since they have the capacity to to do so?

I did not.

No, that wasn't the question.

The the um when I posed this to them, it was hey, this is in the pipeline, is this something y'all would be open to?

Usually when I um file a C CR, I meet with stakeholders in the community prior to this, prior to filing it, and so you know it was it was in preliminary conversations with them, but there was no conversation of would you own it and run with it.

Um again, I I do think that the the cities uh how they outlined in the considerations with SBAC and the I'm gonna get the name wrong higher education um commission, um, this is work that they they could be charged with.

We all have appointees um on those commissions, and I think this is this is a this is a partnership that we could easily do with with our appointees, um, again with the intent of helping our teachers.

Um councilwoman Viegadon.

Yeah, I I would like um for my my own personal information.

I I'd like the um frequency of when the committees mentioned Maria by you meet and if they always make quorum also uh as you as uh as this moves forward, we can make sure that we have that inform that we have the information.

So if I can get the history for the last year and then the um and then as it moves forward through these committees, think because I know I SPAC is an EWDC committee, so I know the problems we have there.

So thank you.

Councilman McKee Rodriguez.

Thank you.

I guess I just want to be sure that the educational it sounded you answered this as I was typing it, I believe.

Um the educational outcomes committee is gonna discuss, you know, what issues we would anticipate being focused areas for legislation that we track.

I'll I'll express um when I first got elected in 2021, I was appointed to the intergovernmental relations committee, and I expressed frustration that the city was not uh tracking or specifically opposing anti-LGBTQ legislation, and it took two, three years for us as a council to adapt that as part of our legislative agenda, and hopefully now it's in perpetuity um or until council changes it again.

But our most recent conversations about our legislative agenda have include many comments from council members looking to, and I understand that the body has changed, but I anticipate that the this concern has not that we do and that we do track certain legislation.

I I see that it is very broad and it can be costly to do so.

Uh so I do think there's value in um especially supporting those potentially lobbying efforts by school districts and uh school staffing unions and whatnot in a way that's comfortable in a way that's um in a way that's helpful, but also making sure that we have those focused areas.

So I want to be sure we're gonna have that conversation at the committee.

Is that accurate?

So yes, okay, councilman.

Irrespective of the CCR, items that the council decide are part of our legislative agenda, we track.

So even if we didn't have a CCR, it wouldn't make any difference.

But but to your to answer your question, yes, that's that should be part of the conversation.

We've done very little work on the CCR on that topic.

And I think my advice, my recommendation is that we go to the committee and we let it evolve with the the governance comments today about being focused and intentional and understanding impacts.

Absolutely.

Second to that, the committee is going to engage a stakeholder group to discuss leading the efforts to see how they might, as businesses support teachers and school staff.

That is accurate.

And then lastly, and I don't know that this has been said, but I do want to be sure that when we're talking about supporting teachers and school staff that we're engaging them directly.

And so see how, as a part of that discussion, we may engage the teachers unions and other supportive staff in some way.

Sound good.

We'll pass along to the committee.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you again for the uh the spirit of the uh of the CCR.

I think this also uh was was frankly a really good example of of you know this governance committee looking at what is it actually we are going to achieve here in light of as mentioned.

This is not something that the city has traditionally done.

Uh this is not a core service.

Um, and we would now be dedicating resources uh to do something for which there seems to be ample capacity in the community to do.

Um I think you know, you know, social media amplification of of these types of efforts isn't is important.

But when we are facing budget cuts, when we're also facing um uh positions going unfunded uh to meet that, um carving out uh city staff resources to to do something that may actually be better led and better implemented on the private side is is something that we need to that we need to consider.

I also want to just foot stomp the point that my colleague made here in terms of you know being very clear about you know, these are the things that we're gonna track to support teachers.

We very quickly get into frankly murky conversations about supporting which teachers and making sure we're supporting all teachers.

I mean, if we're not supporting our trans teachers that in fact exist in our community, um then how are we making that distinction?

And that then falls on us as a city when we do that, don't do that, our silent um way in when it's easy to, but then fail to do so when it's hard to.

Um, understanding that frankly, all of our teachers are important in our community.

So those are the types of things that we need to be thoughtful as we um as the educational opportunities council committee um looks at this and determines what is an appropriate uh way forward, if any.

Um so there is a motion and a second to move this to the educational opportunities council committee uh with a potential partnership with the SPAC.

Um, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Opposed.

So it's two favor and two opposed.

I'm opposed.

Okay.

The item fails.

Item eight is a CCR regarding AI.

Madam Clerk, please read the uh the caption.

Item number eight is a council consideration request from council member Mark White on District 10 on artificial intelligence integration strategy.

Good morning, Mayor and Council.

Um Craig Hopkins, chief information officer, I'd like to talk about the CCR.

Uh submitted in the May of 25 by Council District 10, who's requesting a creation of a municipal artificial intelligence integration strategy.

The request specifically asked that the city manager evaluate and provide recommendations on the creation of a comprehensive AI plan, which would include a review of other how other cities have structured AI initiatives within their organization, tasking on individual to lead, implement, and monitor the city's use of AI, recommendations for the integration of AI within the city's current organizational structure, and a suggested timeline for implementation if approved.

A couple simple considerations here.

Currently, there's no budget impact at this time on building a plan that is ongoing work that's happening.

All uh budget will be driven by individual efforts themselves as we go forward, whether revenue or efficiency driven legally.

I just want to raise an issue.

Uh, HB 149 did pass at the state, which goes into effect January 1.

I'll talk a little bit more about that, but there are some um things that we have to do operationally to support uh that as well with AI tools as we go forward.

Uh quick background.

Uh, we've actually done a lot in this space already, uh, updating a lot of our policies and administrative objectives.

Um .4 and 7.12 actually focus on acceptable use.

There's actually a separate uh attachment to 7.4, which allows for um very pros and cons for employees to use for generative AI, especially the public use of generative AI tools, what they can and can't do and how they can manage the risk.

We've also implement a position statement internal, which is a very detailed standards document for people who are either building or buying AI tools as we go forward, how that gets uh implemented inside of the city of San Antonio as well.

We've adopted the risk framework from NIST.

I won't bore you with the details of that, but it's a very structured uh industry framework that we're using to basically manage risk as we go forward across a variety of tools, not just AI itself, it's an extension.

We had an internal audit earlier in the year uh that looked at all of our current policies and procedures with no findings on that, and we've continued to do that as we go forward.

And uh, we're also a member of the GovAI coalition, one of the founding members.

I don't know if you know you're aware of that, came out of um another city in California, and we've been uh partners with them, and now there are several hundred cities that are part of that coalition, very focused on sharing standards and processes around uh procurement and uh other policies as we go forward.

It's been very helpful to do this with other cities, not just do it alone.

Uh in progress, there's a lot of things going on.

We continue to evaluate business use cases that come forward.

In fact, I talked with a colleague of mine up here in a department this morning about a specific use case that they're working through that could make them more efficient in prioritizing work and applying their guidelines, and we immediately jumped to AI as the tool.

What I want to be clear is there's lots of technologies we can use that may or may not be AI, but we're continuing to use technology to drive those business cases.

Um again, we'll monitor things that are going on at the state level around uh legal use.

Um most of the things that we're hearing right now are about disclosure.

So if you were to use an AI tool facing a resident, we would have to disclose that we were doing so.

If a tool uh made a decision on behalf of a resident, even though we have a human being who will ultimately make the decision, we would have to disclose that as we go forward.

And then your typical things we've talked about in the past about biometrics and some of those other things about how we're using those tools.

We are required to inventory our tool sets inside the city and determine what is high risk AI and what is not.

I will tell you at this moment, we do not have high risk AI inside the city as we go forward.

Uh we also are doing lots of research and prototypes around AI.

We actually have seven prototypes underway right now, uh, several with PD, what we've talked about in some of our budget discussions, but also things like copilot and some other tools that we're using at the enterprise level.

They're all in a prototype phase so we can determine what's the best thing to do.

And we do actually have a uh AI strategy and action plan that is drafted in place.

Uh it has not publicly been published, it's been been refined over the last year or so, but it gives us very strategic uh direction over the next couple of years.

What do we want to do and what do we want to accomplish in the first year as we're setting up right now?

So it's in place and we continue to work it.

Um so to the CCR, we recommend uh to address the specific request that the chief information officer will continue to lead the city's AI efforts with support from the chief data officer as well as the chief information security officer and the privacy officer, and not only the city attorney, I have many city attorney friends in this place in this space as we go forward.

And we will continue to work the draft of the COSA artificial uh intelligence strategy and action plan.

It's in place, it has annual strategic milestones.

We'll keep updating it as AI evolves.

Uh we recommend an annual B session briefing on AI to the city council to provide an update on our efforts and provide opportunity for city council to provide any policy input right now, tentatively scheduled for January of 26.

Uh, and IT will have the lead on this going forward.

With that, oops, my apology.

There you go.

Um sponsors here, Councilman White, if you'd like to say a few words.

Yes, thank you, Mayor.

Thanks to my colleagues for taking the time to review this.

Um AI is the next frontier, as we all know.

I think there's opportunities to make our government uh more efficient with the use of AI, but as uh Craig mentioned, um there's a public transparency issue here that I think is really important that many of my constituents uh have certainly mentioned to me.

You know, people shouldn't be calling the city and uh you know having AI on the other end of the line really and not knowing it.

Um so um this I wasn't aware that this intelligence strategy and action plan um existed.

I'm glad that it does.

I think it's something that council needs to have input on.

We need to uh be able to review it, maybe come up with uh ideas again where AI uh can be used to again make our government more efficient, or maybe some areas where we don't think AI uh should be involved.

And so I'm happy that uh with the recommendation.

I look forward to the the B session in January.

So thank you, uh colleagues and staff for your work on this staff is recommending referring the item to B session.

Uh can I get a motion say we may begin discussion?

Okay, great.

Um appreciate the uh the comments, Craig.

Um, as you mentioned, the draft that was been in a draft for a little bit, it sounds like so.

Um appreciate the uh that coming to B session before the end of the year um and give us giving us an understanding of uh timeline of implementation.

I think frankly, based on the speed of AI, an annual update is is probably um not frequent enough, uh frankly.

So look forward to that being um at least quarterly.

Uh and if we need to go into exec session, then we could do that on some of those topics.

But I think that's a that's a good way ahead.

Any other comments?

Council Viegada.

Yeah, I want to echo.

Do we need to formally make a motion that this gets presented to us quarterly uh on this B session here?

Because if not, I can write another C CR.

Well, let's let's uh let's yeah, let's not do that.

Um let me uh let us figure out the frequency um just given a the our B session schedule.

Maybe as you I heard you mentioned it kind of under your breath, maybe it's kind of an executive session type briefing.

We can do a formal report, yeah.

Or quarterly and then exec session as needed on basis of some of the topics that are a little bit more sensitive.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

No, I I'm in agreement with it.

I think it needs to be quarterly.

I think annually would is not sufficient enough as uh this changes.

So again, yes, if we could get that, if we could get a schedule, please bye before um before we hit for the Thanksgiving break.

I'd appreciate that as we look at our B session schedule to make sure that we've we've got that on our calendar and understand when that's going to come because as we go into uh conferences, which I know most of our council members will be heading to.

I think we're gonna see a lot of that information out, and there's gonna be a lot of questions.

So um instead of meeting one-on-one or in committee, I think it needs to be at B session to address the accountability that uh Councilman White talked about.

So um yeah, look forward to moving this forward and getting those on the calendar.

Thank you.

Councilman Gill.

Thank you.

I think it's extremely important topic, so fully support that.

The one comment I'll say is a process comment.

I don't think that the councilman should have had to do a C CR to have a B session on this topic.

I know this was originally scheduled some time ago, and then the last council had a long exec and it got rescheduled and never happened.

Uh, but we don't have to have a CCR to have a B session on such an important topic.

So that's all I'll say.

Thank you.

Go ahead, Eric.

Agree.

Well to that point, I I think the uh the um the request though for an update on the strategy itself is something that the the the count any council member could have asked the staff to provide.

So even uh frankly, none of this needed to be a CCR at all, correct?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay.

Councilman McKee Rodriguez.

Thank you.

I will disagree mildly, just the um it sounded like as a result of this that a plan was created or was a plan already underway.

Okay.

For sure, for sure.

And we did have a B session scheduled earlier this year, or it may have been earlier this year, that uh uh the the council was overcome by another issue we that that we were dealing with and it did not get rescheduled.

So um it's timely and it's certainly something we need to keep in front of the council.

Gotcha.

And is the strategy and action plan itself uh a confidential document?

Umitially a lot of things in there that I um are very risky that we need to talk about, but I think there's a public version of it that we could come to that talk about what we're intent is and what we're doing.

It's currently not the state of the document, right?

For sure, for sure.

I think that's important to have those two different uh it is important for the public to know that we do in fact have a plan and some major, I guess, goals of that plan, but the tan the specific action steps that are a little bit more uh tangible.

I think definitely we should have a conversation and and an exact just so in a briefing on that.

I don't know that I do think that this is an area that eve has evolved so rapidly over the past few years that a quarterly uh briefing does make sense.

I would request that we look at all of the B sessions that are aimed to be quarterly because it it I think about some of those briefings that we get, and it seems like we get briefed every you know, ever by bi-monthly almost, and no change it, no nothing really new has happened.

And so I just want to make sure that whatever briefings and meetings that we're having that they're aiming to be effective and that we can provide tangible direction on those.

I appreciate that comment, Councilman, because um we are resetting with uh monthly utility briefings um and uh and then the fair amount of work that that we have.

I'm not sure that quarterly briefings are possible, but we're gonna start that way and get them scheduled, and if things have to adjust because of other matters, then we'll adjust accordingly.

But I I I hear the council loud and clear, given the change in environment and the risk associated with it and the important aspects of this that are public facing, we need to make sure that we keep it in front of the council as often as possible.

But um uh we're gonna we're gonna start working on well, we have started working on the calendaring of items through midsummer next year.

And so we'll start with the appropriate pace of trying to do that quarterly and then adjust accordingly.

For sure.

It would be helpful if we have even before that calendar uh is set, it may be possible to uh provide council members with a list of all of those recurring meetings or all of those recurring briefings that we're set to get, and maybe we have a discussion on what's necessary and what's not, just so that helps your planning for the summer.

That's that's good, Mayor.

Uh I'm sorry, Councilman, because um likely we'll you'll get uh um yeah, we'll appreciate it.

Thank you, Mayor.

The um Craig, the first meeting uh before the end of the year that I'd like, and and again, part of this is we talked about during the budget session.

I think we all recognize there are some things that you could put in place that would in fact help us save money.

Um so I would ask that uh as part of the first update to the during the B session, you to kind of lay out your plan, but also hey, here are the three or four things that we're looking at that could be cost savings when it comes to the FY27 budget.

Absolutely.

If I just may say there's a lot of hype out there as well.

So as you go and talk to vendors and conferences, ask what's real, right?

As we go through that, we'll be able to help you through that as well.

Yes.

Okay, there's a motion in a second to oh, go ahead, council.

One last comment.

Yeah, I don't want to gloss over the point I made earlier.

I think the the talking to the councilman, I think he filed this because of a frustration.

So I think they tried to get some information first and were not successful, and then filed this to get some information.

Uh and I'm also disappointed that he filed this in May and no one told him that they have this plan existed since then.

So I think that communication needs to be um better.

So that's all I'll say about that.

I don't disagree, councilman.

I still see the sponsor in the back.

So you would you like to say anything about why you filed the CCR.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

So uh there's a motion in a second uh to move this to a uh B session.

Um, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Okay, motion passes.

Item number nine is a council consideration request from council member Mark White, district 10 on taxpayer impact statement.

The CCR was filed in March of 2025 by council district 10.

And the request is to develop and publish an annual taxpayer impact statement to be included in the adopted budget document.

Specifically, the request is that this uh statement includes uh property tax comparison, the current fiscal year, and then the proposed and finally adopted budget um compared to to the current year, as well as fees and utility bill comparisons.

So the the budget office has created the uh impact statement that includes the city property tax comparison from fiscal year 2025 to the current fiscal year 2026 uh on the medium uh assessed valuation of a residential property, also including those fees that are imposed to our residents, including the solid waste fee, the environmental fee, the parks environmental fee, and the strongwater utility fee.

Those are the fees under the purview of the city council, and that those are reviewed and uh revised as part of the annual budget process.

We will be requesting to CPS and SOS to provide us with an impact impact statement of their or the fees that they assess to our residents, and those will be provided separately as those fees are not adopted as part of the annual budget process.

So the recommendation is that we will be completing in this uh taxpayer impact statement as part of the budget process on an annual basis, and the budget office and the in coordination with the finance department will be leading that effort.

And that concludes my presentation, Mayor.

The sponsor would like to say a few words.

Thanks, Mayor.

Um you've talked a lot about transparency since you've been in office.

I've talked a lot about transparency over the past two years.

Uh this is a um, I think a really important issue uh for for the sake of transparency in what our city government does and getting the accurate information to the citizens of San Antonio.

So every year, whether it's it's garbage can fees or or other fees that that are raised, some may be lowered.

Uh same with with CPS rates going up or SARS rates going up.

Uh, we have residents call our office, I'm sure you all too, all of a sudden say, hey, why I didn't know that this uh fee was going up.

Why am all of a sudden I'm being charged this, or I saw this on my bill that I've never seen before.

Um that's not right.

Um the citizens of San Antonio deserve to know if we're raising their cost of living or uh if we're decreasing their cost of living.

So what we did was we look at we looked to Austin and Austin um passed this several years ago.

They they did a a resolution, which is what I'm looking for here.

Um I think we need to pass an ordinance that requires uh maybe like Austin did that two weeks prior to the vote on the budget that the city publishes for the citizens um any fee changes or tax increases or decreases uh that that we're looking at.

Um this is what the city of Austin's uh taxpayer impact statement uh looks like.

And so I appreciate staff's work on this.

Um the recommendation I have a little bit of an issue with because what I would like to see is city staff uh develop what our taxpayer impact statement would look like, uh, get something approved uh by the council and then put an ordinance into place that requires staff to publish it uh not just on the city website um but also you know as Austin does um in our San Antonio Express News in in the local newspaper.

It's too hard for citizens a lot of times uh to get online and find it or go look through budget documents or something like that.

We need to publish it um in the newspaper, make it as easy as possible uh for the residents to see what's going on.

So uh that is that is my request, and I appreciate uh you all considering moving this forward.

Uh staff is recommending uh this item be included as part of the budget process.

Can I get a motion so we may begin discussion?

I make a motion to approve.

Andy, can you clarify what we legally have to do already under state law?

What we do have to do by state law is is we have to be very specific in their state uh language, Mayor, that specifies in terms of the tax rate what we're doing as a council.

Unfortunately, sometimes that language is not as clear and sometimes frankly confuses the public, but we adhere to it, and uh we also though advise the council that we're not increasing taxes despite the language sometimes we get from the state.

Um but the state is very specific as to what from a tax property tax standpoint we're doing.

Uh and that's all really right now we're required to do is just on the tax, not necessarily on the fees.

Councilman McKee Rodriguez.

Thank you.

I know I mentioned the the uh statement will be available on our website following this meeting.

Do we have a visual of what this statement looks like?

We do, councilman.

Um I don't have copies for everyone, but we will provide those uh after this meeting.

So we have developed the the uh statement for the city of San Antonio.

In addition to that, in our recommendation, we would include this as part of the proposed budget document that is presented to you all and to the community 30 days in advance of the adopted budget.

Um we can also provide it as part of the budget highlights uh as well to make sure that the community is well aware of those changes that are included in the budget.

As you may know, we go out to the community, we have 10 council meetings, we have two public hearings, so we can definitely promote it uh through that process as well.

For sure.

Well um, I guess what I'm interested in it sounds like the reason that the council member would like to um have a resolution or an ordinance uh codifying this statement.

Uh I'm wondering, will it now be incorporated into our financial policy or some other uh will it be codified that we update and post this statement annually in some way?

I I don't think it would be part of our financial policies.

Um it'll be just part of our annual budget process.

And um I I don't know if it requires an ordinance, but that's definitely uh uh to the to the decision of the mayor and council if if they wanted to do that.

I I guess um mayor and stuff.

I'll share that my philosophy as it relates to CCRs is that when a council member files a CCR and gets signatures from four supportive council members to begin the discussion, that we are as um close to the intent, we are as close to the intent as possible.

Um and it sounds like at any point staff can just decide we're not gonna do this anymore, and it will take you know three, four cycles from now.

You know, you look back and it's hey, wasn't this something that we were doing and now we're not?

And so I do understand the goal to create a sort of uh permanent impact statement that is published and accessible uh for all.

And I wonder what I the question that I would have is how the rest of council would feel about a resolution or an ordinance, or does everybody have the same expectation, or is it just the five folk who sign to this CCR?

I don't know, Councilman, but I think you're I I think you raise a really good point.

This initially came up in the springtime, and and based on early conversations with Councilman White, we were gonna incorporate it because it was anticipated that that this item would go through uh the the previous term.

Um and then and then had we done that, it would have been incorporated within our process, which would have memorialized it going forward.

Um here we are in October, and and whether it is uh an aspect of our financial policy which gets updated in the budget in the by the budget ordinance every year, or it's a separate uh resolution of intent um uh by the council to incorporate the publication.

I whatever whatever uh you all thinks help memorialize that as something that we're gonna do irrespective of who's sitting as a council member or mayor or city manager, right going forward.

So I guess what that's I'm not opposed to that.

Sure, thank you.

So I guess the question that I would pose, and I'm not sure that this requires an amendment to the motion, but I do think if if possible, I would like for staff to have individual conversations with council members about this specific proposal.

Um I think that would then be worth a B sush a B session discussion about whether or not we do create an actual ordinance or if that's something that if everybody's comfortable enough with it after you have your one-on-ones with with council members that an ordinance be presented to council for an A session.

Sure.

Okay.

If I if go on go ahead, if I may, Mayor, uh uh councilman, one of the unintended consequences though of having an ordinance with an established timeline, is then you would have to move the whole budget process up because once you publish it, then you can't change it.

Could we do it with I mean, I guess to address that that concern legally, could we just not include a timeline within the ordinance?

Could yeah, yeah, and that's what I would that's what I would recommend then.

Do you need um uh what do you need to change to update the financial policy?

Um full council input um and um and that's we do that as part of the annual uh work session for the council.

Right.

Um it's all the council.

So you don't necessarily need an ordinance.

No, we incorporate the financial policies within the adopted budget ordinance.

So we get the input on the front end and then they're incorporated in the in the uh in the annual budget.

Thank you.

Mayor, would it then be possible to get a um after you have those conversations with council members?

Could we then have a brief update at this committee?

We could.

We could.

Um councilman Wogia.

Thank you.

I have a slightly different take than the councilman about this.

I don't think it needs to be an ordinance.

The 66% of public safety in our budget is not an ordinance, that's a budget policy that we follow every single year.

So I think it just it can just be a policy or uh a budget policy.

Uh and I think the great time to talk about that is in the budget process.

So I mean, you know, we want to have some individual council input between now and then, that's fine.

Uh, but I think that's where we hash out the budget policies.

We don't talk about budget policies normally um right after we pass the budget.

So I think that's a good opportunity.

Uh and I think it also, you know, what's gonna be on that form, I think is important too.

We all have different opinions.

So I would like to put on there how much we save taxpayers uh taxpayers by reducing the property tax rate every year that we do that.

That's a savings that is um residents have that's not known to them.

So that's something I would want on that form, but I don't think it needs to be an ordinance.

I I don't think it needs to really bubble up too much until the budget process begins early, uh, and then we can add that in and publish that what it needs to be published.

That's my take.

Councilman.

Uh yes, I don't think we need an ordinance.

I think city staff needs to proceed, and if they want to on a one page or put what where fee increases included as part of the budget process, we do that.

I really think it is the responsibility of the chambers, the number of associations, the organizations to put out the message.

This is how much this is how much you're having to pay.

This is how cost of living does that.

I mean, we have tons of organizations and associations that invite us to tons of events that do that and have the staff to do that.

So I do not I am not for putting this on the staff to do um to do this, because this is something everything is open records and open documents that Express News can do this on their own.

They don't need us to publish a page that tells them what's happening.

So um, yeah, I I will move forward with staff recommendations on this to make it part of the the work budget process.

And can we go ahead and vote?

Can I call?

Oh, we're got some more the comments here.

Eric, did you have something you want to say?

I was just gonna um suggest an alternative one of the one of the one of the uh items is covered under the ordinance for governance and CCRs is to go do additional financial work.

So as an alternative to the staff recommendation, let's hold it.

We'll we'll we'll produce what the statement could look like, bring it back to the governance committee, um, do a little bit of a little bit more due diligence on the pros and cons of ordinance versus no ordinance incorporated within the financial policies and bring back to the to the committee um some more meat before you you all weigh in.

That's another alternative.

Go ahead, councilman.

I actually would like to suggestion.

Uh I would just say that uh a little disagreement with councilman via Gran.

I think this needs to be published in the newspaper.

Uh and and uh if we're going to produce the taxpayer impact statement, it costs us a couple hundred bucks to uh to put it in the in the express news.

We need to make it as easy as possible.

We've got older folks uh that still take the newspaper, they don't go online, uh, they they don't know how to use the websites, they don't know how to go look for the budget documents and and all the rest of it.

We need to make it as easy as possible uh for folks to see what's uh what's going on.

And so uh I I appreciate Eric's sentiment.

I I think it would be a great idea uh to let staff go look go go work on what the impact statement would actually um look like, then bring it back to you all uh and then we can decide how best, or you all can decide where you want to move it uh so that we can decide how best to let the public see it.

Thank you.

Um and again, thank you for uh for the idea, um, councilman.

I think it makes a lot of sense um as folks uh do have questions about any potential increases that they may be experiencing in their lives, and certainly as you know, we again begin to see the impacts of these federal cuts, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Chip, SNAP, um, folks are gonna be looking at that each of their bills a little bit more closely.

So I appreciate the attempt.

Um I do support this.

I do support it coming back to us with an idea of what it's going to look like, um, Eric, so we can all um understand that, and then to Councilman Mungillo's point, if there are things that we'd like to include in that, or maybe phrase it a little bit differently so it's as clear uh as we are trying to communicate, then um then we can do that.

And then frankly, we can all talk to our um uh everybody in the community about what this now is going to help them accomplish.

So we look forward to that coming back to governance.

Thank you.

Okay.

I I one second.

So the initial motion is to um have the staff uh complete work as part of the budget process.

There is a a recommendation uh that they come back and bring something additional to us.

So on the first motion, which was to approve the staff recommendation.

Um all those in favor say aye.

You have to vote on the first one.

Would you like to amend that one?

Hey, if if the second one sounds like a motion to continue, uh we would take precedence to continue the item to the next governance meeting.

I make a motion to continue.

I move to continue the item to the next uh governance committee meeting.

Okay.

Is there a second?

Okay.

There's a motion and a second to uh to continue this item to the following governance um committee.

Um all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Okay, motion passes.

Thanks.

Uh Madam Clerk, please read the uh caption for item 10.

Item 10 is a council consideration request from Councilmember Jalen McKee Rodriguez, District 2 and Terry Castillo with District 5 on tracking and preventing heat deaths.

Right.

Good afternoon, uh Mayor and Council.

Yes, this item.

Uh this item 10, uh Dr.

Claude Jacob representing Metro Health.

This item 10 was submitted back on April 16th of this year by district uh council districts two and five.

The CCR mentions uh heat related illnesses and deaths and looking at prolonged and repeated exposure.

It did ask that we look at best practices, conferring with the Bear County Medical Examiner's Office, as well as um the uh Texas Department, State Department of Health, as well as looking at our uh local plans here and our tracking system.

So with this, just know that uh this is a national conundrum as we think about um heat-related deaths, uh, but we do have a number of COSA initiatives, and I did want to put into context that uh tied to this CCR, uh, these are some of the initiatives that we currently have that align with the CCR.

Currently, Metro Health maintains heat related illnesses dashboard that is updated weekly on Wednesdays uh um from March to October.

The dashboard displays data from emergency department visits starting back in 2022.

The Department of Resilience and Sustainability has also developed a heat resilience playbook uh in collaboration with our department and other coastal departments.

Uh COSA also has an essay climate ready um plan with to increase awareness and education related to climate impacts, lowering emissions, and building resilience in San Antonio, and finally, COSA continues to focus communication efforts on how the community can mitigate the effects of heat on our uh hot weather webpage.

This web page also contains a map of resilience hubs and places to stay cool.

So just know at the end of the day, um, we do have resources available.

These are just a few that we list uh a few resources that can be useful to you and your constituents.

The first is the accessible uh alert essay, which community members can sign up uh to receive alert notifications in our videos in American Sign Language.

The second is the hot weather website that contains the information discussed previously, and finally the QR code for heat related illnesses dashboard, which is maintained by our department.

Again, uh these are initiatives, these are resources.

Just know that the national conundrum around this has to do with um uh the actually here in Texas uh not having a standardized way to uh track uh these heat-related deaths, but we also have been applying the best practices and have conferred with not only the uh Bear County Medical Society, uh Bear County Exem Medical Examiner, as well as uh Texas Department of Um State Health Services, and we have uh conferred with the Maricopa County Public Health Department.

Um we uh San Antonio, we are a member of the Big Cities Health Coalition, and later this week I'll be visiting that health department.

We'll be hearing as best practices of what they offer and that we can apply to the uh coalition of health departments, the large urban health departments from coast to coast.

So our recommendation is to no further action here, although we can consider um and increasing awareness how we educate around heat-related illnesses.

We are in compliance and concurrence with uh the better the Mayor County Medical Examiner as well as the state, and so uh that concludes my formal presentation.

I should mention that um since it does take a village uh to do this work.

I am joined by um not only our chief resiliency officer, who we're seeing the uh newly established Department of Resilience and Sustainability, as well as um uh our partners at uh UT School of Public Health San Antonio, that's the new school of public health that went live last year.

Uh so we do have subject matter experts besides our staff uh anchored to the work of Dr.

Kerry and our deputy director, as well as uh Dr.

Rita Espinoza, our chief of epidemiology.

So that concludes my formal report, and we're here to answer any questions you may have.

Um, as co-sponsor of the CCR, Councilmember uh McKee Rodriguez is recognized to speak.

Thank you.

Um can we actually invite uh Councilman Castillo to speak first?

Thank you.

Speak first, sure.

Councilmember Castillo, please.

Uh thank you all.

This is a council consideration request co-authored by Councilman McKinney Madriguez, myself in collaboration with the Southwest Workers Union, as well as community members who have worked closely with our in-house neighbors who have lost their lives to uh the extreme heat in San Antonio.

District 5 uh asked that the governance committee refer this policy request to the community health committee.

Uh as mentioned, uh, there is a meeting that is going to take place to learn about what they are doing in Arizona, and I think there is value in going to the community health with an update on what they learned in terms of how Arizona coordinates with tracking data.

Um what we know is that uh what's presented in the presentation is that there's no formal way of tracking this information, and that's acknowledged within the council consideration request.

Uh and the CCR recognizes that the current lack of standardization, uh, which is why we asked for the City of San Antonio to work with relevant agencies to explore best practices which may lead to the identification of track and a tracking method which meets the spirit of the request.

Uh, as Dr.

Dacat mentioned, Marie Copa's uh county's heat illness and death dashboard illustrates this request can be accomplished uh through interagency collaboration, and their dashboard includes metrics and following the following data points like heat-related hospital visits, heat deaths based on official death certificate data, and heat caused deaths include cases where heat exposure is listed as the direct cause of death.

Thank you.

Councilman McKee Rodriguez.

Thank you so much, Mayor.

Uh, thank you, Councilman Castillo, for your collaboration on this effort and for uh everyone here in support of this item today.

This started uh, as Councilman Castillo mentioned as a request we received from members of our community who are all too aware of the crises of of climate change and climate related deaths, particularly in Texas and in San Antonio, where our October is reached 90 plus degrees.

Across Texas last year, more than 300 people lost their lives to extreme heat, including one of our own Tamara Jones, um, a district two resident who was unhoused.

And during one of the hottest weeks of the year, she died from exposure to the same heat that we all felt, but without the shelter resources to survive it.

We know that extreme heat doesn't impact everyone equally.

It's our unhoused neighbors, our outdoor workers, seniors, and communities with fewer trees and more asphalt who face the higher risks.

And if we're doing enough, people like tomorrow wouldn't be dying unnecessarily.

I do want to thank city staff, metro health, and our nonprofit partners for their tireless work.

Uh, but we do need to do more.

Uh, we need standardized tracking of heat-related deaths and a strong urban heat island mitigation and adaptation plan to prevent future loss of life and to fully understand the gravity and scale of the issue so that we may continue to adapt and continue to implement more solutions.

Uh so for all of these reasons, I am going to disagree with uh staff's recommendation that we take no further uh official action as a body.

As I mentioned, CCRs are an opportunity to work so workshop solutions to issues that we're seeing on the ground every day and that our constituents are facing.

You can identify any number of challenges in implementing a policy idea, and that's exactly why it's important that a committee review the proposals and discuss any that staff may identify or uh discover.

And so, in doing so, the committee will also identify areas that uh the board could tackle that maybe we didn't think of originally.

So I moved to refer this refer to this item to the community health committee for further discussion, including consideration of a potential partnership with UT Health Science Center and other applicable agencies to develop options on how we might accomplish the goals of the CCR.

Thank you.

Other discussion?

Councilman, go ahead.

Thank you.

I think this is an extremely important um topic, and I think this discussion had come up uh maybe one or two years ago when there was some other heat-related uh illness um ordinances, especially the rest break ordinance that now requires folks to have a dedicated rest time and construction.

So I know at that time we also discussed at the committee level that you know the city doesn't do that, and the state has some sort of tracking.

But I do think this is extremely important.

Um, you know, as council mentioned, the weather is getting more severe during the summer, it will continue to do so.

Um and I mentioned this in the the homeless discussion, right?

There are folks dying on the street that we're not tracking as a result of what the cause is of that.

Um, and it's typically extreme weather situations that that happens and with some of the other underlying health conditions that folks have.

So I do think it's important.

I think there's a lot of folks in Santuna that can help get this data together uh with minimal impact to Metro Health staff.

Um, you know, there's health hospitals and and colleges, universities, organizations that can do that, and I think it's it's a small ask that people have to keep track of the number of people that have died under construction or uh died from heat, and I think it's uh can inform us on other things, right?

I think it's uh can inform us on other things, right?

If we have this data and we find out that most people are dying as a result of construction work in the summertime, that should inform us on what we do at the city level, right?

If it informs us that the most of the people dying from heat are um homeless, that needs to inform us on our policies.

I think it can inform us on what we do at the city, and I think it can help us be better advocates at the state and federal level by saying this is what's happening in San Antonio.

Uh the state may not have a standard, uh, but maybe we can help create that standard uh for all our own local government.

So that's my thought on that.

Thank you.

Councilwoman Viecadon.

Uh yeah, um, thank you.

And this is uh because governance is new for me here, and so Andy, um the issue to go forward, but not necessarily wanting to see a um the the ordinance come through as the CCR as it's written, we can still send it.

Do we need to make amendments or can we send it as it is?

Confident that the committee is going to make adjustments.

I I would uh uh to answer your question, councilwoman, uh it's you would forward it to the committee where the issues would more be more robustly looked at and analyzed, and I'm sure there'll be modifications that then will come back to the council if the committee uh decides to move it to to full council.

And and this may be and stop me if it's it's not relevant to this, but uh could staff come next time we have a CCR and bring recommendations that it gets moved to the committee to be considered with possibly some other initiatives that are being discussed within the committee.

Uh certainly, councilwoman, particularly issues that are very much related or tied to the issue that the CCR is trying to address.

I think um I I would like to see this go into check and see the Czech committee have an opportunity to review this simply because as we talk about um racism and poverty and the health care crisis that they create, we do need to consider who is who is out on the streets with these extreme T uh temperatures, either working or living.

So I um I'm in support of moving this over to Czech, but I would really like it to see um moved into the bigger, broader issues that we are addressing instead of um niche, because I think there are other um deaths that are specifically related to someone's poverty or someone's um race or and that we need to track also, and and so I'd like to see that kind of look bigger picture and and then also see them discuss what they're doing in Arizona because it is only getting hotter, and we are seeing that um if things aren't taken care of the way they should, air conditioners go out, um water isn't available, uh pipes bust in extreme heat and you know extreme cold.

So what what are we what are we doing to address those issues when they don't have access to that?

So um I do applaud the efforts that we're doing.

I think we're doing a lot to address this, but I know it gets it it gets into iffy portions of the what does the death get attributed to the heat related the heat or the fact that that they had a heart condition and the heat exacerbated that.

So I understand how hard that is and and how it it's nuanced.

So thank you for the presentation.

But I look forward to moving this to see what Czech can have a discussion about.

Thank you.

Rick.

Thank you, Mayor.

You know, um this was one of those items that the the CCR asks that Metro Health track heat-related deaths in San Antonio through intergovernmental collaboration, shared research, and best practices, all of which uh, as Claude talked about, we have a a dashboard, we update it every Wednesday.

Um and the no action part of this is that we can't standardize for everybody else and track accurately, and Claude mentioned that.

But in fact, our numbers are probably underrepresented on our on our website because of the the requirements or the standards by by which the medical examiner's office issues the death certificates.

So um what I don't want to get lost, and I think council it's more in the spirit of what councilwoman uh Vie Gran was discussing, is that when we say no no further action, we still have to do all the things that Claude said, we still need to learn from Maricopa or anywhere else.

It is going to continue to be an issue.

We're still going to update our what our dashboard, but we continue to look for a way to be able to accurately reflect.

Was that the city shall do this?

And that's the part that's not completely up to us, but we need to keep trying to scale that wall.

And I wanted to provide that that additional context.

Yeah, thanks, Eric.

I mean, that's an important point, and frankly, not like other CCRs, which is as presented, right?

This is the recommendation.

Um, understanding there could be conversations, you know, as the CC, and that's why it's really important as the CCR is being developed, that they work with the staff to understand kind of what already exists to Craig's point, uh, but also what's in the realm of possible where things are in the timeline.

Um, and maybe this would have been actually looked uh potentially a little bit different based on the results of your of your trip to Arizona.

Um I do support uh this moving forward to uh to the community health uh um committee.

I think it is important that we do try to understand um what may be frankly causing but also exacerbating um some of these health conditions in in our community.

Um I think there's also uh some synergies that we might want to look at the data that may be collected and even qualitative and quantitative, right?

That can help inform significant plans that we have in our community, like our climate action adaptation plan, excuse me, um, as well as when we look at uh the data and where some of these things may be exacerbated geographically in in our community.

We can understand what that funding may need to look like for additional cooling resources, for example, in in certain areas.

Um I know there's already some some thoughtful research that's happening at at UTSA, those that are um monitoring, frankly, the temperatures in someone's house, how that can be higher than what it is in fact outside.

Um, but then understanding those communities are probably facing a whole other range of challenges uh that we might need to account for at the at the city level.

So um I I appreciate um uh you know the feedback that you're gonna provide um as we collaborate with others that are facing this, um not unlike uh uh like they are in in Phoenix, and then um helping our the the School of Public Health at UTSA understand help us understand what's in the realm of possible to your point might not be perfect, um, but how can we get some better data to make some some uh well-informed decisions?

Um there is a any other discussion around the table?

Okay, uh so there's a motion um and a second to refer this uh to the check uh for further exploration with the uh UT Health Science Center about what options may um may be possible in our community.

Um those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Okay, the motion passes.

Thank you.

Okay.

Uh Madam Clerk, please read the caption for item 11.

Item number 11 is a council consideration request on dedicating the San Antonio International Airport in honor of Coach Greg Popovich.

Mayor, I'm gonna take this one.

Okay, or so uh the uh council consideration request was submitted on May 14th by District 8.

Um everybody knows who Coach Popovich is.

Um, and the request was to rename the international airport uh after uh the coach.

Um next slide.

So um I won't go through all this, but most of you all know that we went through a pretty um expansive uh rebranding effort of the San Antonio International Airport and spent the million and a half dollars over that cost.

Um we are not recommending any changes to the name uh to the airport um at this point going forward, and nor do we have money set aside for any of that.

And so we're recommending no further action on this item.

Staff is recommending no further action.

Can I get a motion so we may begin discussion?

I make a motion to approve.

Second.

Okay.

There being no further discussion, uh, there is a motion and a second uh to approve the staff recommendation.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Motion passes.

Madam Clerk, please read item uh caption for item number 12.

Item number 12 is a council consideration request by council members Terry Dastillo, District 5, and Jalen McKay Rodriguez, District 2 on the San Antonio Trades Advisory Board.

Mayor, Mayor and Council members, this is the last item, so thanks for your patience as we work through these.

Um this item was submitted in April of 2025, uh, district five and district two.

Uh, it requests that we create a trades advisory board to provide formal formal input and recommendations on city projects, workforce policies, economic development initiatives, to protect labor standards, to ensure fair wages, and to prioritize the local workforce development.

Additionally, it asked for the launch of a one-year pilot program focusing on city funded construction projects to include telecommunications and infrastructure projects, and then to expand to cover municipal service contracts, think about technology investments and workforce policies.

Um, it also asked for the creation of a public compliance dashboard, which tracks city contractor violations and labor conditions.

Some considerations uh for you all on this CCR.

First, I'll start with some budget considerations.

Um, this would create additional staff time to be necessary to um you know make sure that we're covering um these stakeholder meetings and the policy creation of that board.

Additionally, staff time would be required to put uh to provide um compliance over those labor standards and the workforce development information.

Um currently dedicated staff exist to oversee prevailing wage requirements that are included in solicitations and um so those uh folks would continue to do that, but their role would be expanded.

We'd need more of them to ensure compliance throughout construction while the project is being completed.

Some leadal legal considerations.

Uh the city charter prehempts prohibits this council from delegating its oversight authority to any other body, including boards and commissions.

So any proposed board uh would need to be advisory only in capacity.

I think what we saw in what was described in the CCR, we would need to think about um that that would be advisory only.

I think it's more than advisory in the way it's described today.

Um so staff would recommend that we do not move this forward due to those budgetary and legal constraints.

Um councilmember Castillo, you're recognized to speak if you'd like to.

No.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I want to thank the committee for taking the time to review five of District 5 items, and of course, for the collaboration of Councilman McKee Rodriguez and the locals who spoke in support of this item today.

Uh District 5 objects to the staff's recommendations since the trade advisory board is intended to serve in an advisory capacity and only has a built-in one-year pilot phase.

The governance committee can resolve staff staff's legal concerns by moving the CCR forward to EWDC and/or Transportation Infrastructure Committee with direction that the tab scope and responsibilities be strictly advisory.

As for the budgetary concerns, COSA has has had the data and information the TAB would need to review in order to provide recommendations.

It is a matter of sharing it.

A compliance dashboard will simply ensure that ethical companies are recognized and bad acters are held accountable.

The staff time should be considered as an investment in improving safer working conditions, fair wages, and stronger workforce development training.

Establishing the tab is also an opportunity to build on the ready to work's goal of creating a skilled competitive workforce by expanding access to training and education, particularly in high demand sectors like the boating trades.

And many of you all should have received a letter from Matt Gonzalez of Layuna, and I want to pull an excerpt from that, uh, which states the workers, the men and women who build and maintain San Antonio's infrastructure deserve representation, a voice, and a seat at the table to advise on the policies that directly impact their livelihoods.

Texas remains the deadliest state in the nation for workers, particularly in construction.

Every day workers face dangerous conditions from excessive heat exposure to an inequity inadequate training and job sites hazards.

The trade advisory board is not about industry convening, it is about worker protection, fair wages, and creating a sustainable pipeline of skilled labor.

The trades advisory board is not a regulatory burden.

It is a safeguard for workers who power this industry.

The city of San Antonio has an opportunity to lead and to prioritize safety, fairness, and workforce development that protects those who risk their lives every day and to build this city.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilman McKee Rodriguez is a co-sponsor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I do want to start off by thanking those who brought this idea to us and showed up in support as well as to Councilwoman Castillo for her collaboration on this item.

Uh, I don't need you hit the nail on the head, and I don't have to harp on any of those issues and any further.

Um, I do want to be clear that any legal concerns that our city attorney has identified or any fiscal concerns could be highlighted and addressed ahead of any and at any future committee it is assigned to, and there will be surely more robust conversations that take place at the committee that get us to a happy place, happy place.

Um, the intention of the CCR is not to create a board that supersedes the influence and direction of city council or to have final authority over any decisions regarding city policy, but instead to provide recommendations with specific goals and criteria in mind, and for that feedback to then be relayed to council during any pertinent uh discussions.

I would like to see this item hashed out at the committee and for it to make its way to an A session for final consideration.

Uh so I'm interested in hearing uh from my colleagues about the path forward, but I'll start with a motion to send the item to the economic and workforce development committee.

Councilman Viegadon.

Yeah, I I support staff's recommendation right now because of the legal issues and as chair of EWDC.

I am committed to uh address the tra uh the tab before the end of the year in December.

So I think uh we can support staff's decision and then bring the tab to the EWDC so we can look and discuss the advisory board, uh the advisory piece of it, and then have something for uh a session.

Hopefully, I I can't commit to y'all when we would have a session because I need to get in the room with check, but uh hopefully early part of next year about what a try uh uh an advisory board would look like, uh trades advisory board would look like in conjunction with what the uh CCR number or the CCR we just passed, item number five.

I think that is gonna be conversation that we need to have.

But um that is uh my commitment as chair is to address uh the advisory board, the trades advisory board before the end of the year in uh committee, and then bring something early next year to um to the full council.

Um Andy, can you speak to um some of the legal um uh considerations uh that informed the recommendation?

Uh yes, Mayor.

Uh if you look at the uh structure, uh actually attachment A to the CCR.

Um as was noted, the intent was to make it advisory, but if you look at some of the literal reading of the uh of attachment A, and I'll give you an example under scope and responsibilities, set and enforce fair label criteria for city contracting.

That that's a role for council under the city charter.

Um so that's just one example.

There's a couple others in attachment A that at least leave the impression that they're going to have the ability to enforce or to give legal advice on compliance.

Uh and although that wasn't the intent, uh, we can certainly make modifications to the structure, roles and responsibilities so that it fits very neatly into what the parameters are under the charter or what the role the city manager has and city council in terms of policy.

Okay.

Um I think there's a lot of support um on the council for for something like this, understanding the need to ensure that um our our workforce um is uh taken care of in as many ways as possible.

And so it it sounds like um some of the some of the readings of the actual words are are a bit of the the challenge because I think as the councilwoman described, uh the intent is absolutely for it to be advisory and not to usurp in any way the responsibilities um or um uh or authorities of this body um or of the city.

So um how to give us an idea, because what I what I don't want to do, as we've talked about previously, we don't want to move something forward that may invite legal risk.

Um how might we um how long might it take you to potentially just redline um a version of this to help this governance committee understand what would be acceptable and still meet the spirit and intent of an advisory council, advisory board rather?

We certainly can have a red line by the next governance or or it it we can we can probably have a red line in a week, mayor.

Okay.

Well, I appreciate the the the very quick review there.

Um and that may give us a sense of of what we would actually be passing to to any community, and I think um that document would also be um something that would um allow the community to also to review and and make sure that we're all in uh uh in agreement about um the the limitations of that word, if you will.

I think we're all just very sensitive to any um you know, kind of any legal challenges as a result of this.

Um understanding we're all trying to achieve the same thing here.

Um so the current motion on the table.

Yeah, please go ahead, councilman.

Thank you very much.

Uh council uh councilman cuter, you would clarify that I seconded the course, but the motion was to forward to EWDC for committee.

Okay.

Um of course I support that, and I think you know the legal things can be hashed out ahead of the committee easily.

Uh maybe it was just a typo on the points uh about that.

So I don't think it's any no delegation of authority it was intended, I'm sure, on this.

Um and and rock me up through really quickly.

What were your budgetary constraints that you recommend as a result of your recommending not to move forward with this?

Councilman, I think I think what we're trying to illustrate is that the number of staff necessary to start monitoring the things that are outlined in the CCR don't exist today.

So we'd need to create that that regimen of people who can monitor what's going on and create the requested dashboard, for instance.

All that's not in existence today, and it would take staff time.

Okay, so all the an attachment and all the things in here, none of that is looked at by city staff currently.

Some of it is looked at by CEP, but there's not like a dashboard that exists, and the number of people who are doing it, it's for a certain set of projects that we do that, right?

It's not for the entirety of the universe of projects, and so that that's the big difference.

Yeah, I'm sure an AI tool can come up with a dashboard pretty quickly.

So uh we're gonna have to do that.

I'm not sure that's allowed, sir.

So just tell the people that it's an AI tool, right?

Um so no, I think it is a lot of folks that are here, a lot of a large tent here of folks that came and advocated for this and just want to make sure they have a voice at the city level for certain things.

So I think it's really important, and I hope that the uh committee can do a good job in reviewing this and and getting something to council um that's within the legal boundaries and within our budget.

Thank you.

Um Councilman Viehadon.

Again, I have a I I and I don't know if you need to go over governance again uh on what we do here, because um the frustration is there is where is the money gonna come from for the additional staff and time.

So uh while I will review this in EWDC, if I have to come back and it's not within the budget, what do we do?

So this is this is what's problematic with this, and that's why I like the mayor's suggestion.

Other than if we're gonna send a CCR, I'd rather see it redlined uh before it goes to EWDC.

And in that in addition to that, I'd like to see a price tag in terms of staff-wise, what we're gonna do.

So um I I would like to make an amendment that we continue this until we can get a red line uh done.

Uh, because this is this puts more work and I I understand, I understand committees need to work, and I have pledged to do three uh audit and EWDC committee, so we can let uh we can be on a good path.

But this is a lot of work for committee that I think if governance had a fully vested CCR, uh it wouldn't be as much work for them.

So uh I I make a motion that we have the CCR redlined for those legal issues before it gets sent to EWDC.

So councilwoman DeKerry Clark, you're you're making a motion to continue uh for the next governance with the two inputs you asked for the legal red line and the financial and the financial councilman McKee Rodriguez.

I may second it in a second, but I do want to ask a clarifying question just to clarify the role of governance and to clarify the what a CCR is and is not and how we may get things to committee.

So this CCR was filed to for council to have an opportunity in some way or fashion, starting with the governance committee, to establish the trades advisory board.

Fact one if we were to not send this to committee, can it still be agendized by the chair of the economic and workforce development committee anyway?

Andy there yes, historically, yes, yes, they can they can, but um but but there's also been and and you all have talked about two uh items so far.

It it's what councilwoman View Grand just said.

It's where does it how does an item get sent to um to the committee now and and based on the council the governance committee conversation, it gets shaped.

The committee could not pay any attention to it if they want.

It's up to them.

But but I think this conversation, this policy level conversation from the governance committee is instrumental to setting it on a path.

Um clarify a CCR isn't absolutely necessary to propose policy.

If I as chair of transportation infrastructure uh that the committee want to agendize any policy item, I can do that even before getting any signatures from anyone.

You're looking at me, but you should probably also be looking to the mayor.

Um the answer is yes.

I mean, this is essentially uh where I started, uh, not to bring up any trauma, but um, this is essentially where I started with some of these CCR enhancements, which is does this need to be a CCR?

In fact, many of these do not.

Um many of these can work be worked through committee, could and should be worked through committee, but because they have come through this way, we now have to have this discussion.

Um, but you're you're exactly right.

This could have come through um chair of Via Gran's uh committee and um may have landed in in the exact same place and frankly may have saved some time as well.

So if we created a so if I created a five signature memo that was not called a council consideration request, and instead of asking it to go to governance, I said I would like for this to go to public safety, that would be an acceptable way for a chair to decide that they're going to agendize something that would be up to the chair uh uh determining whether they want to agendize it or not.

If I understand your question correctly, you're saying of the CCR uh councilman?

I I think there's just an inherent challenge now, or there's now been questions of how city council uh proposes policy, and again hate to rehash trauma, right?

But if this if this was to say the original motion remained on the floor, and then two count to council member mayor, two council members, two people decide they want to vote no.

Item gets procedurally killed, it can be revived by any committee if they so choose.

By the committee chair, correct.

By the committee chair.

What an interesting revelation.

I'll second the motion.

To continue to continue.

Okay, great.

Okay, so there is a um a motion and a second to continue this item until it receives a redlined um version of the uh of the attachment and the CCR to clarify that just the attachment A or the entire CCR councilwoman.

The red line with the red line I was speaking, and you had concerns with Andy, correct?

Was just attachment A, is that right?

Uh it was attachment A, uh, Mayor, because that would be the the document setting, at least initially setting out the roles and responsibilities of the committee.

Okay, so the item that's redlined is not the entire CCR, just attachment A.

That's correct.

So then um continue the item until we receive, and thankfully it's a week, right?

So the red line version of attachment A and then the fine financial considerations.

Okay.

Um all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Okay, motion passes.

Great.

Okay.

All right, that's the last one.

Thank you again to the staff.

Um, and um as mentioned, you know, I think lots of lessons learned here.

Uh the key takeaway though is those things that don't have to be a CCR uh can be worked through committee.

And it's a lot of uh time saving, and and frankly, probably gets you closer to where you want to be.

Okay.

Um the time is now 12 40, and this meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.