Okay, good morning.

The time is now 10 01 a.m.

on January 13th, 2026, and the meeting of the audit committee is now called to order.

Madam Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez.

Councilmember White.

Citizen Member Dinah.

Here.

Citizen Member Pacheco.

Chair Via Gran.

I here.

Thank you.

So the first item on the agenda is approval of the minutes.

Are there any corrections to the minutes?

All right.

Can I get a motion and a second to approve the minutes?

I have a motion.

Can I get a second?

I got a second.

All right.

There's a motion and a second.

All those in favor say aye.

All opposed say no.

Aye for me too.

Motion carries.

Madam Clerk, is there any members of the public signed up to speak?

We have no members of the public signed up to speak for this meeting.

All right.

No members of the public signed up to speak.

We are going to take consent agenda.

There are two final internal audit reports on the consent agenda.

Do any members wish to pull an item on consent for discussion?

All right.

If not, can I get a motion and a second to accept the audit on the consent agenda?

Motion made.

I've got a motion.

Do I have a second?

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All opposed say no.

Motion carries.

All right.

Items four through seven are individual items and are a pre-solicitation briefings.

Item number four, Madam Clerk, please read the caption for item four.

Item four is a briefing on the release of a solicitation to engage a firm to conduct a study to provide projected cost of service impacts and identifying new revenue opportunities for the proposed sports and entertainment district, the district for an estimated total value of $350,000.

All right.

We have a staff presentation by Troy.

The floor is yours.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you, Chair and members of the committee.

My name is Troy Olaid.

I'm the chief financial officer.

We have two items on the agenda this morning, both related to the sports and entertainment district.

The first of which is a pre-solicitation briefing for the district study.

An expansion of the convention center, looking at uh John Wood Courthouse as an additional venue, the Almo Dome that'll be operating, mixed use development.

Then also anchored by a um a MBA arena.

So this MBA arena in the district will need the support of different services throughout the life as it evolves.

This district study is going to actually facilitate two different components in looking at the district.

One is a cost of services in support of the district.

The cost of services will look at kind of what it's gonna take to support that district over time in terms of traffic management, security at the district, fire and EMS support, and also the maintain the district over time as it's being built.

These um the district or the study we're asking that the study be somewhat dynamic or scalable in terms of when you look at the district, it's gonna operate different events at different times.

The Alamo Dome may have an event moving that may be going on.

The cost of services associated with that event will be specific to traffic management, the fire and EMS and control of the um the event at the Almo Dome.

Also looking at the dynamic scalability in addition to the Alma Dome.

If you have the Almo Dome going on or an event at the Wood Courthouse, and you also have an MBA Spurs game going on, the cost of services will be different.

So we're asking for them to look at a model that will be scalable based on what's going on at the time in the district to actually help us estimate those costs of services.

In addition to the cost of services analysis, we're also asking this consultant to look at what are the possibilities in terms of additional revenues that can be generated in support of our general fund.

Primarily the primarily focused on sales tax.

Looking at are there opportunities for pop-ups, marketing, things of that nature outside of the venues as we um move forward.

These were not focused on those pledged for repayment of the bonds.

The repayment of the bonds is done through a separate feasibility, such as our hot revenues and our P of Z.

So focused primarily on the general fund revenues and primarily sales tax.

The solicitation type for this um solicitation would be an RFP.

It's a one-time contract, would not extend past the year with no renewal options.

We're looking at an estimated value based on similar studies that we've looked at, and also past history within the cities for studies about $350,000.

And then the funding sources are hot redemption and capital fund, which is a component of our hot our hot fund.

In terms of the solicitation overview, we are going to do extensive outreach to make sure that we can have a consultant who can and can accommodate the scope and very quickly.

Those two NIGP codes with seven veteran owned small businesses through SBA and the RCA.

Because of the importance of these two, we have stacked our evaluation team led by Maria Villa Gomez, our deputy city manager, Ben Gorzell, our chief of financial administrative services, myself, Justina Tate, our interim assistant city manager, and then Freddie Martinez, our interim director and office and management and budget.

For as the evaluation criteria, we're proposing 30 points for experienced background and qualifications.

In terms of the proposed plan 35 points, pricing 10 points, our SBE prime contract program of 10 points, and local preference program of 10 points, and our veteran owned small business five points.

As far as the additional solicitation requirements, we're not asking that there be audit financial statements.

We do look at other, we do ask them, but they're not required.

And we look at other items out there to actually assess our financial condition.

This is a one-time contract, so it's not as important as far as an extended relationship with them.

Local preference would be applicable, as I mentioned on the prior slide.

Also applicable, and then you saw the subeta.

There are no percentage points or subcontracting points on this item.

As I mentioned, the project timeline is fairly aggressive.

You know, today we're starting with the pre-solicitation briefing, getting your input as a committee prior to releasing it this week on January 16th.

Simultaneously, the restrictions on communication start with the release of the solicitation.

Focusing on proposing a pre-submittal conference with interested parties on January 23rd.

Political contribution blackout start date February 2nd, which is 10 days potentially after the issuance.

Deadline for questions, February 4th, and a due date coming back March 2nd.

Having the evaluation completed, coming back to this group on April 7th, and then hopefully having it available for city council, full city council consideration on April 16th.

Looking at a contract start date immediately and coming back to y'all with a with the results of the study, somewhat six to twelve weeks after that, um, so that we can actually use that to inform the rest of our negotiations with all the different parties.

With that, Chair, I think that concludes the item on the district cost of services analysis for the sports and entertainment district, which I believe was actually item five.

Great.

This item is for uh briefing only.

So will we be speaking on this?

Are we gonna take them both together?

Take them both together if you want.

Yeah, so that this was the uh this solicitation.

You know what?

We're gonna take them separately because I want I want to separate them.

So this was the briefing for the district study and the cost of services.

Yes, correct.

Okay, let's take them separately because they don't want to confuse the issue, and I think we have the time.

Um, because for this one in particular, and I do appreciate the aggressive timeline, Troy.

Um, and again, this is for briefing purposes only because we're putting out the RFP.

There are a few things that I want to uh make clear as we move forward.

Is one this is gonna be one time, and they're basically going to do this.

What I need, I think, and what the council would need, and what I would prefer is in terms of when they're doing this study, what is the time frame they're looking for?

Beginning when the arena is built to uh and the convention center expansion is completed to you know 2045.

uh make clear as we move forward is one this is gonna be one time and they're basically going to do this what I need I think and what the council would need and what I would prefer is in terms of when they're doing this study what is the time frame they're looking for beginning when the arena is built to uh and the convention center expansion is completed to you know 2045 so I I'd like that timeline of what we're asking them to cover in terms of cost of service because we know prices will go up and we know that we will have competition for the convention center and for um people making the playoffs in Houston and Dallas so I'd like to kind of get that because there's playoffs conversation you know you talked about the different scenarios is there's a playoff possibility for for us in that which means increased security traffic problems the other is the um if we do see another uh shutdown in terms of either a government shutdown because the government shutdowns sh has to shut down and get their budget in order or we see another pandemic where we have to stay home are we going to include that in kind of uh scenarios in terms of how that's going to impact the cost of services I'm glad we are keeping in the local preference in Sabeta but I do want to make I do want to stress experience in this because I think that is going to be key as we uh take as you take these numbers to the full council that they're gonna want to know that whoever did this study had the experience of doing this before.

So as we move forward I I think we want to look at that and then I do want to stress again if when we come to the blackout dates that we we send out a reminder today after this briefing when blackout potential dates start to our our council colleagues and that we continue that um that as we get closer to that date um February 1 we we remind them again that blackout is start date begins February 2nd because I do not want to run into the issue of someone taking all that work and effort to apply and then um getting um disqualified because they contributed to a campaign so um I think great it it is it is a big ask what we're looking for is something we haven't done before I think when it comes to traffic and security that is going to be key because a a security for a regular NBA game or a regular um game versus a finals game or a um a final uh an NCAA um championship game is going to be different it's gonna look different the traffic is gonna look different the um the services in terms of what we need and in terms of walkability is gonna look different so we want to make sure that we take that into consideration the trash pickup afterwards solid waste is gonna look different after having X amount of people so the one thing I do want to take into consideration is of course the scenario for the game as we as we look at that RFP and the experience have and then the information they have regarding our New Year's Eve celebration downtown our Dia de los Muertos and what I'm assuming is that as we as we grow and this area grows that we'll see more activation downtown for Fiesta.

So we want to make sure that whoever um is applying to the uh this RFP local and you know maybe uh national that they and global because I know there's groups out there that are looking at what we're doing here that they understand San Antonio and what we value and what the community gets out for and what people come to the city to celebrate for so with that uh I open it up for discussion to uh my committee members uh who would like to go councilman white thank you chair um thanks for the presentation uh so what what are some key deliverables that we think we're gonna get from um from the group as I mentioned it's gonna be focused on two areas from a cost of services to give us you know like we talked about kind of as we phase into the district what the cost for each of those different components what they will cost to deliver those services and those deliverables we should get a based on what we anticipate happening over the sports entertainment district how much what it costs as the base we also want to be able to flex that in terms of like we mentioned depending on what's happening in the district in terms of an event and any one we'll be able to scale that based on if it's just something at the Almo Dome are across all venues at the same time so essentially what is it going to cost provide traffic management control EMS fire support uh maintenance for the district once built out and security on all those different scenarios we're also gonna be looking at specifically identifying the opportunities for new revenue generation and what those opportunities are and based on those opportunities how much can it generate potential sales tax I know certainly when I've attended other venues outside of the city of San Antonio a lot of the a lot of the experience happens before even walking into the facility through terms of concessions or pop-ups and things like that.

I know certainly when I've attended other venues outside of the city of San Antonio, a lot of the lot of the experience happens before even walking into the facility through terms of concessions or pop-ups and things like that.

So specifically identifying what those opportunities are and how much we can generate an additional sales tax in support of our general fund.

Those would be the two primary.

What are some examples of what some of those opportunities would look like?

Based on some of the conversations we had, there may be additional concession opportunities outside.

There may be the opportunity for pop-up markets, fiestas, marketing.

Um I don't have the in-depth knowledge, but that's what they're asking to do.

But those are some of the type of things that based on discussions with people that are opportunities are out there.

That presumably this group would look to other cities that have that have put districts together like this and seeing what's worked there and what could work here.

Yes, sir, as part of the experience.

We want to understand, you know, their experience, background qualifications where they have done studies like this before.

Yeah, and we'll certainly take that into consideration as part of the evaluation.

Um listen, uh, you know, I'm glad we're doing this because the questions that I get all the time from people in the community are um you know, again, how this is all gonna work operationally, um, the public safety, right?

Of uh of folks that are that are down there that are enjoying whatever, whatever the events are going down there, um how we're going to do that.

Um, and then along with how do we maximize what we are gonna do in this district from a from a revenue perspective, right?

Because there's uh what I told people, and I think what what the city's position was at the end of last year was that this is not all gonna be about people, you know, that attend Spurs games, right?

Or that that go to the arena for for whatever it is, you know, how how do we maximize this from a revenue perspective, um, bring more money in into the city that we can then use for all the day-to-day, you know, quality of life issues that that the city has to address everywhere.

And so to the extent that we can find a group that that will identify these new revenue opportunities, um, I think I think that's something we should do.

I'm glad we're doing it at the outset uh before before this thing really gets moving.

And so um I'm supportive of this and uh appreciate appreciate the work on it.

Thank you.

Thanks, Chair.

Thank you.

Uh Councilman Meskinzans.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

Uh, just a couple of questions.

I was gonna ask the same question Mark had if he had an idea of um, I think you said in here identify new revenue opportunities.

So if you had an idea of what that looked like, but you shared that a minute ago.

Um, and also on the evaluation committee members, it's definitely an all-star team of of committee members, but mainly in the finance space.

So I was wondering if you had thought about any public safety specialists that we could include because that's one of the you know priorities that I think you're asking for.

We didn't we did not, you're exactly right.

I mean, cost of services and revenue typically is gonna be in the budget and finance space, and that's why we kind of stack the team that way.

Certainly, this um consultant when they're actually working to develop these cost of services and these revenues, they're gonna reach out to fire and police and get their input, but we did not have anybody on the team specifically from those different parties.

Is there still an opportunity to include them?

Uh certainly, I mean, this is the reason why we are getting your input.

So prior to that solicitation going out, if that's something the committee wants us to value and put on, we can do that.

Okay.

I would like that to be the case, but we can talk more about it.

Is that it?

Yeah, that's it.

Sorry, yeah.

Um, thank you.

I think um in terms of I know we have Maria on there, but I I think Councilman Metz Gonzalez brings up a good point in terms of maybe getting someone who has worked on coordinated something large scale with getting on there in terms of are they giving us the true cost of what it would cost to mobilize um a unit, especially in a downtown that is gonna be still under construction.

Um I'm sure it's gonna be perpetual under construction and what it would take to kind of negotiate that.

So I'm gonna leave that to y'all, and then if you could get back with us on a memo about uh if you think this would work or how we would incorporate that kind of perspective.

Um because putting up the um the barriers and things like that, the cost of that, and then if we if we get into a situation where we're like, okay, we're gonna have to close the street again, making sure that we've taken all that into in that that we have a group that we've choose choose a group that takes the all that into consideration, I think would be helpful.

I think in terms of revenue, I I like uh Troy brought up ads and pop-ups, and we've seen that with uh final four.

Uh the other thing when we talk about parking is really I would really like this group to see if council needs to look at creating a special ordinance or permit, kind of like we do with garage cell permits.

And Troy brought this up for with you before is when we have this big event.

If people are gonna be parking cars in their yards, that they that we have a permit and they have an understanding of of what our expectation is if they're going to be using their personal property to park vehicles in and charging 60 or 80 dollars.

Uh and that way we have an idea of how that's going that's that's working.

So um parking is is gonna be key as we look at that, and that's what I'm really working, hoping that we understand how much that costs if we we have to go through that process and put out an ordinance for uh parking permits and what that's gonna cost too.

Uh I that's where I'm leaning is if we have a big event, people get a permit so that they can park, and that way we know that they're not um that that they understand the the safety uh conditions that we're going to need in order to you know if something happens to that vehicle P PD fire is gonna need to be able to get in and and to provide services.

Um I think I think you kind of have the idea of where we're going for for this uh pre-solicitation.

I think the only thing is in terms of the the cost of service for our uh security, and the other thing about security as we talk about this is I know in some if they could this group, some of the groups that will be renting out the convention center, the arena will have their own security and hire off duty.

So understanding that that gets folded into kind of what our expectation is.

Um and it then they'll be hiring local, which will be um SAPD or Bear County, and and how we do that.

Ben, you'd like to share.

Good morning, Chair, uh committee members, and uh Troy may have already covered this and I walked in a few minutes late, but you know, just want to reiterate one appreciate the feedback.

We'll go back and look at that, but I just want to make sure um that we're clear on the the evaluation committee is strictly there to select the consultant.

Once they're selected, they will be engaged with police, fire, public works, because we're gonna need all of that input and work with them so that we can create the kind of models that Troy talked about.

So that I don't want to leave you with the impression that it's a kind of a finance budget kind of study, and we're gonna drive it's really going to be a coordinated effort.

We gotta have their input in order to get to the right to the right space and the right kind of modeling and assumptions that we're making in terms of as Troy said, a scalable model that looks at what's happening in the district, how much activity is going on, and then we're scaling our services to that.

And so that's our goal, but we will take the feedback.

Um, and then our goal again is to issue this this Friday and want to get out the door pretty quick.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

And uh I we look forward to the follow-up, and it could be through a memo.

Thank you.

The only other thing I was gonna mention you brought parking, and when we were actually putting the scope together for this, we looked at parking in we intentionally removed parking out of this.

We're gonna come back to you with a another parking feasibility or parking study because it's so complex to support that district, but not only the district, but the entire downtown footprint.

And I think it maybe it may be better putting that into that scope of work and separating that out from this, if y'all are okay with that.

No, I I am fine with that, because I know that's gonna be a bigger conversation that this committee and and city council needs to handle, but I want to make sure when they talk about traffic patterns that they have a scenario of we could be looking at strictly garages or bringing people in when this group comes together to to look at cost of services, because that again, and and I think that's why when we talk about uh public safety and officers is traffic cops and who's paying for them and uh what what sort of cost of service that is.

So if we have if if we and just I just know a little enough about traffic to be trouble, but if we are cut, we were like, no, there's no we're not gonna let people park in this part of the area, so we do not have to worry about traffic flow coming this direction, uh understanding that what we're gonna need there, if we're gonna have the barricades and traffic cops are going to be located.

And I'm thinking again, in terms of traffic, think New Year's Eve, think the concert where we had Alton John and then everything going on and and what we had there.

I think Garth Brooks back in the early 2010s, you know, and and kind of that sort of problem coming up.

So even if we're not talking about parking, let's talk about traffic and where these parking locations will feed into the feeders.

All right, so uh thank you on that.

Um if there isn't anything else, we'll go on to the next item.

I wanted to separate these because they're very different.

So the next item for briefing only, we will move on to item five.

Madam Clerk, please read the caption.

Item five is a briefing on the release of a solicitation to provide the city with an executive program manager for the sports entertainment district program and the estimated total value of 10 million dollars for two years over three one-year options to renew.

And this is uh the second of the presentations related to the um the sports entertainment district.

This is a pre pre-solicitation briefing for an executive program manager for the sports entertainment district, and refer to you'll you'll hear me refer to this as the EPM throughout the presentation.

This is an important piece or important piece of the puzzle in putting and implementing the the um proposed district.

The EPM will be part of a city-led program.

Um, they will be responsible for the overall oversight of the district program throughout the life of the program.

As we mentioned, there's a lot of moving pieces to the this construction program, it takes a lot of coordination through the convention center, the arena, the venue with the wood courthouse, infrastructure that's gonna be put in place to support the district, and also the operations and improvements going on at the Almo Dome.

Um that is fairly common across these large type of projects.

It's also a model that we have in place and we're utilizing at the airport right now for the terminal development program, um, and also for the implementation of the associate CIP.

It has proved very effective in managing risk.

They are essentially going to be a representative of us as the owner of the convention center.

This is going to be a phased project over time.

The initial look, uh the initial um scope that they will be focused on, is really kind of bringing all these pieces together.

You've heard Ben talk a lot in our presentations about all the different components and all the different pieces to um the entertainment district.

They will actually come in through phase one, help us kind of bring all those pieces together, develop a detailed project plan, evaluating risk, looking at strategy, putting governance in place.

They'll also be looking for risk and additional risk, looking for opportunities.

One of the things that uh we specifically want the EPM to look at is for example, when we actually go through and we put in place um the expansion for the convention center.

Simultaneously, there may be an MBA arena going up down the street.

There may be opportunity of opportunities for us to leverage kind of both projects at the same time, for example, purchasing still.

We may coordinate packages because based on volume, we can purchase better discounts for steels for all the project versus creating competition for looking at the convention center package for steel versus the arena putting together a package for steel and all the mixed use development.

So we really want to see where those places and opportunities that we can generate efficiencies and not generate competition between all the projects in terms of labor and materials.

Um in short, this um EPM would be brought on board as soon as possible and help us kind of bring all these pieces to puzzle together.

We're proposing that this be issued through a request for qualifications.

I mean, I think to your point, Chair, on the first one, we want someone with broad experience and who has done these projects before for different types of districts to actually minimize that risk and help us put this in place.

Uh proposed term initially would be two years with three one year options.

I mentioned that this would be the first phase.

The first phase basically is approximately gonna be 10 million dollars.

As we work with them, and we have the all the pieces of the puzzle coming together, we would come back to council again with an expanded scope of work for the EPM and with additional costing um throughout the duration of the program uh for the entertainment district.

The funding sources is really two components.

One is gonna be the hot redemption and capital fund that's we talked about before with the district study.

That will be for the initial phases of providing for the cost for not only the EPM but with our city team.

As we actually have construction projects that have been approved, for example, like the convention center, then from an accounting standpoint, we can actually capitalize those costs, charge them to the construction project, and they would no longer be hitting that hot redemption and capital fund.

So it'll be the cost of putting those assets in place.

This would also be a new contract.

Similarly, when you talk about the evaluation voting members, given the importance of this contract, um, and the duration of the contract, we have a pretty robust team, starting with Maria Via Gomez, our deputy city manager, Ben Gorzell, myself, Alex Lopost, the assistant city manager, John Peteric assistant city manager, Michael Shannon will be invaluable as part of this as part of our director for capital delivery department.

Art Reinhart, who recently joined our team as a public works director.

Tim O'Cronley, who is our uh deputy director out at the airport who has the experience of hiring an EPM already for the airport, then Erica Ragsdale, who was working for Laurie at the time and has some continuity and experience on the um sports entertainment district.

So pretty large team and robust team to make sure that we select the right uh firm to represent the city throughout the duration.

Um as I mentioned, this is a request for qualifications, primarily all the points on 50 points on experience background qualifications to make sure that we have a firm that can actually accommodate this type of program, a proposed plan of 25 points, SBE prime contract of 10, local preference 10, better known small business five points.

Um in addition to the local preference points, we're also went through the small business committee, Sebeta subcon sub Sabeta will be required for subcontracting at 14% of small business enterprises, and that will be addition to the 10 points on the prime for the um evaluation again fairly aggressive timeline and a similar timeline to the district study I just presented with releasing again at the end of this week, uh coming back with uh pre-summill on January 23rd.

Responses will be due February 27th, negotiate the contract, come back to this body on April 7th, and hopefully with city council consideration on April 16th or thereabouts, and then working with the EPM throughout to put them to work on the the um sports entertainment district and the management of that district again, Chair uh brief presentation, but that completes my presentation.

Uh thank you, Troy.

Uh, again, another aggressive timeline to make sure we get this done, but um, and I wanted to separate it because I wanted it to be clear and and we know we have uh people watching in terms of the proposed term for this is two years with three one-year options, and so that's why I wanted to separate it because I didn't want there to be any confusion, and and wanted people to understand is this program manager would kind of take this role to uh facilitate what's going on downtown, and and the other thing is as we continue to talk and get ideas, is um I like the one-year options if if we need to kind of grow this into more of an area that doesn't just sit regard where the uh arena is.

Um my one question though, because as we look at slide number four with the evaluation criteria, uh, and we've had this brought up, is what it looks like in terms of experience, background, and qualifications with the proposed plan, that's only a 75.

And what I'd really like to see, while I do uh I am appreciative of local preference points, is I'd really like to see us try and get to an 80 in terms of background and qualifications and proposed plans, add another five points, possibly to proposed plans, and leave five points for local preference because I have seen a few too many uh come through audit where local we have local preference points, and then there's a big zero.

And and that's why if you could go back at it, and you again you can respond with a memo and say, councilman.

I think there is gonna be local um that is going to need that that it is worth putting our local preference points because that is within our means.

But if if we're I don't want a big zero where local is concerned, um I I want to make sure that as we go through this process that the the max points we could get for qualifications and proposed plan is there, especially proposed plan, because this is this is something new, it's something we haven't done, and what we're asking them to do is work with an existing hemisphere program that we had.

Um I I want to make sure that as we go through this process that the the max points we could get for qualifications and proposed plan is there especially proposed plan because this is this is something new it's something we haven't done and what we're asking them to do is work with an existing hemisphere program that we had we have you know Tower of America is in that area we have a neighborhood association like there's gonna be a lot of work to be done so I want to make sure that we have somebody that if we had taken out um local preference and veteran owned and I hope there's a veteran owned business out there that can that can get the points that we get as close to a 90% as 100% points that we can so that that's my one um kind of thing about the the 10 points uh and the fact that I'm I'm really glad experience background and qualifications is at 50 points but I I want to in terms of proposed plan I want to make sure we have the best plan possible because I do not want to see some of the scenarios we've run into the past where we are um where we're where we're stuck because there was five points out there we would have given or or something like that but we you know kept them for the local preference I I want the I want those putting the uh RFQ together to really feel to really put forth um something that's very competitive and and um kind of highlights all their expertise um on this but that that those are my thoughts right now but if you're like no we've got plenty that have done this plenty of local businesses that have done this in Chicago and LA and overseas that's great if not we have to understand that Chicago LA um these kind of program managers are coming in very similar to where the airport is but we didn't do uh local preference for the airport so th those are my uh thoughts no understood and we'll work with the city attorney's office um on the local preference to see if what opportunities are out there okay currently under the um the ordinance that governs the local preference programs the points are really bifurcated into two pieces 10 points for our companies that are headquartered and five points for those that have a substantial business presence here located in San Antonio so we'll work with the attorney's office to see what opportunities see what we have because there's a big difference between headquartered and strong presence so um I look forward to hearing from my council colleagues councilman White yes thanks again um for the presentation Troy um I've mentioned this to Ben I've talked about it with Eric I I met with one of these groups that is is looking to uh to get involved in this I don't know eight months ago or so now and I asked them specifically regarding pay if we could tie their pay at least in some respect to performance in other words we're not just giving this group a lump sum payment for managing this project but if the project gets done on time on budget et cetera they can make more if it doesn't they can make less and it was really interesting because uh the the guy that I met with when I I I asked a question like that and he sort of smiled and said well yes you guys could require that if it if you wanted we've seen it done before I don't know why we would not push for a pay structure like that um that said I am not an expert in in in these uh in in hiring these these program managers um but but what are your thoughts on making sure that that we structure the contract with whichever this group is and and tie their their pay to performance in in some shape form or fashion I think it's certainly something that we can look at I think there's different forms of incentives there may be positive incentives or maybe disincentives like penalties or things of that nature.

So it may not be so much we're gonna pay you an additional amount if you meet certain milestones it may be if you don't meet certain milestones there can be other consequences out there.

So I think it's worth something exploring.

And we can come back and look at those opportunities and where it makes sense.

Sometimes I think when you have the when you provide a contractor with an opportunity for additional money when they come in there may be padding in there but that would be for us to evaluate to make sure that they're not padding their budgets to make sure they can meet them.

But certainly worth exploring I think no I I think we will definitely take that back.

We're talking about the EPM, so kind of think about them as kind of the umbrella over the district, right?

And then we're gonna hire design teams, construction contractors that are gonna go implement that.

I think we have to be a little bit strategic and thoughtful about where we put those um how we do the accountability at those different levels, but I completely hear you.

I mean, um staying on schedule and on budgets important.

We've talked about that on the airport, how you know a one-day delay is is a lot of money if we can't make a decision and move forward.

So all of those pieces are gonna be important to include having the EPM help us set up a governance structure that that we'll be working on internally that to make sure that that process moves, but completely hear your point, and we will take that back.

Who who is going to be ultimately responsible?

Is it is it is it the EPM?

I mean, yes, we're gonna hire folks or the EPM's gonna hire folks to do the specific jobs, right?

Right.

But who who ultimately is responsible for getting this thing done on time and on budget?

So you're gonna have different layers with the EPM there's a is to help us manage the district, right?

And to manage those projects, we'll have a construction contractor, for example, potentially doing the convention center expansion.

That contractor will be required to deliver that project, right?

And we'll have milestones and things that we're holding them accountable for.

But but is the EPM a step above them?

The EPM is they're providing more project oversight, program oversight.

So, yes, so they're looking at the whole district, not just the expansion.

And and they're gonna be the ones to help pick these contractors and schedule when they're out there and and do their work?

We would be doing the procurement for the contractors, the design teams for each of the projects.

But again, that that EPM is gonna be there helping us with that program oversight of the district.

Yeah.

For the convention center expansion, for example.

What type of delivery method are we going to use for identifying that from a construction standpoint?

Helping us draft the design specs, the construction specs, and facilitating all that to make sure that we can actually solicit and get a competent contractor in there.

At the highest level, they're gonna make sure that from a risk perspective, that that contractor is performing based on the timelines and the milestones that they should be.

In the event they're not, they will elevate that through to the governance committee that it's not performing.

So they are gonna be watching the construction schedules of those that are working on the project, and maybe also helping coordinate.

Well, if we're doing work here at the convention center and we're also doing work on the arena, you know, is it taking place simultaneously and how's everybody getting around on there?

All of that, right?

Yes, sir.

All right.

So I mean to me, the if they are it sounds like they are ultimately responsible for how this is gonna move and take place down there.

And so to the extent there's um, you know, delays is the easy one that comes to mind.

Over budgets the easy one, the another easy one that comes to mind.

But um the the overall well-being and uh um nature of how this thing moves through the process, if they're the ones that are there to make this thing happen correctly.

Um I think we need to put some metrics in this agreement with this group that that they've got to live by, otherwise they don't they don't you know, for lack of a better way to saying it, they're not gonna make the money they want to make if if this thing isn't going right.

I mean that's that's that sounds kind of elementary, but um I know there's a couple different ways to structure um these agreements, and I would think I would like to see that in this agreement with whichever group this this ends up being um yeah, I mean that that really covers the rest of what I was gonna say, but I'm interested in my colleagues' take on that.

Okay, thanks, Chair.

I'm I'm just gonna pop in real uh because I I hear what you're saying to you, Councilman.

And that's why I said in terms of the proposed plan, let's give them a if we can give them an an a few extra points, or if we can make sure that when we look at that 25, what our expectation is for the 25, and then if y'all could take into the understanding, um where uh this committee sits and uh the committee member uh white sits.

My my one caveat with this is in terms of the business uh background is if I'm if I'm putting out an RFQ and you're telling me this is motivated.

My my one caveat with this is in terms of the business uh background is if I'm if I'm putting out an RFQ and you're telling me this is motivated, if they come back and they're saying, yeah, we could do that, but we get to pick the contractors, that is where we might hit a speed bump because this council has very specific parameters in terms of when we pick contractors for this project, what they're paying their laborers and things like that.

So I I think that's the one thing in having this briefing, and and when you have the set the sessions is they understand is what they put in the proposed plan, and what you bring to the council, it they're still going to want as a council, we need to decide what's still what oversight we still want regarding this project because I am not comfortable of giving up some of the oversight this committee and this council has and the city manager's office has so that the um so that the program manager can work a little faster now.

If they can make some guarantees and they're watching this, or they come back and see, and they're like, oh well, you know what we can do, we hear what the council is saying, and we want to put in this.

Let's let's look at it with what the caveats with their proposed plan is.

So I hear you, and I think, but I really think it's up to those putting forward the RFQ to hear what you're saying and and put some to give themselves the edge on in terms of points, what they can do and what they can deliver, because they know as most of the city knows is that we want projects delivered on time.

And if you put together a plan that tells us how you're going to do that, that's great.

But if it means us having to give up some of our control, are we willing to do that?

So uh that that's the one thing as we move forward.

Um, and you and you have the pre uh pre-solicitation briefings um communicating that and um and having those groups understand what the what the desire of the council is.

Uh any other committee members?

Yes.

Thank you.

Thanks for the presentation.

Um, yeah, I just want a second or a third at this point.

Uh Mark's point.

So interested in in that fee structure and what that looks like for the uh EPM.

Um also on the estimated value, the first phase on slide two.

The first phase is that's related to the proposed terms, or what is that first phase?

How many phases are there?

Well, essentially in my mind, there's gonna be two phases.

The first one is just kind of getting the foundation put down as far as taking all the pieces and putting together a detailed project plan, looking at risk mitigation, looking at those opportunities, establishing governance, and a host of more things, alternate deliveries for the construction projects.

Um, as I mentioned, it's an approach similar to the airport.

Um we start off about the same amount with the airport, and as we work with them and we put all these pieces, the foundational pieces together.

The second phase, which would be actually the implementation phase of the district and managing the construction, we would come back to council with a an amendment to the contract with associated costs, and also probably putting in the safeguards as far as the incentives that we're talking about.

But the first phase is really just getting the foundation laid and all the planning put in place for the subsequent phase, which is the implementation and construction.

So the 10 million only accounts for the first phase?

Yeah.

Okay.

10 million or less, I would hope.

Yeah.

Um, I noticed that the community engagement piece is missing for for this EPM, but is there a separate contract for community engagement throughout this process?

There's not a separate contract that I'm aware of.

I mean, we talked about this.

I mean, if there's community engagement, you have all the different pieces, they would actually help manage that.

That may be done through a separate contract or a consultant that comes in under the EPM, but all the different pieces to include community community engagement, infrastructure, all the different pieces they would manage those pieces and make sure that the timing is being implemented to um actually deliver the program.

Yeah, I probably want to see that just spelled out a little bit more clearly because that's the I mean the bulk of what residents right are looking for, asking about so they might I'm any of us could probably get in the weeds with you know infrastructure improvement ideas or timelines, but making sure that we are just communicating this to residents at all times, I think is important.

So whether it's part of this contract or um a separate one, just want to make sure that we have this at all times.

Got it.

Um councilman we'll um we'll be having a B session tomorrow as well.

Yeah, talking about the district overall, so we can talk about that a little bit there as well.

You know, we think about the EPM, their job is really to gonna be to oversee this this this program and this district in sequence and do all of those things.

One of the things that we'll also be looking and working with them on is, and I think there's a CCR making its way towards governance, but uh, much like the airport, we'll work on setting up a dashboard, yeah, um, external so that people can track what's happening in the district, what activities happening, what um you know how projects are advancing, how things are moving.

Sure, sure.

They will help us do that as well, and we want to have that um integrated to some degree with our other systems so that you know it is staying up to date without a big manual lift on our side, because it's really not helpful if we're having to spend a lot of time manually turning stuff around.

But in terms of of keeping the community informed, that will be part of their work.

Um if there's something more specific on the community engagement side, we can probably talk about that a little bit more uh during the B session tomorrow.

But they're they're they're they're gonna uh wake up every day of their job is to make sure they oversee this program and help us uh sequence projects and make sure we've got a project plan in place.

Absolutely, and I I'm familiar with uh the EPM at the airport, and they're doing a fantastic job.

So I get it, and I'm supportive of of having this um downtown, but um, you know, of course, just always gonna ask about the community piece because that's what we get hit with right every day.

Um, and we should have the answers to to folks.

Um and then like we talked about the construction contract, they'll they'll have their own project manager, I'm assuming, right?

That contractor, yeah.

The individual contractors typically will have their own PMs project manager and their own PMs.

So then that PM, those PMs essentially go back to the EPM?

Yes.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

Just making sure.

Um, I think that was how many how many contracts is that EPM overseeing at the airport?

Do you have an idea of what that looks like?

Don't have an idea.

Um you have the one with Hensel Phelps, of course, and then there's subcontractors under that.

Um, but they're working like the sub as well.

The EPM is also that the EPM has a you have an EPM relationship, then you have like you mentioned you have a PM relationship, and then you have the all the contractor parties that are part of this group.

But the EPM is is communicating with all of those, right?

Yeah, the subs, everybody.

Everybody there um through Hensel Phelps and their subs, looking at the project plan, like we talked about, make sure it's scope on time and on budget.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

On that point, um, I really why this role is so important.

I mean, you think about the airport, we're building the terminal there, and you've got a construction manager there that is issuing you know, uh packages, we're bidding those out, or building a terminal.

In the district, we could have a lot of construction activity happening at the same time.

We could have an arena going up, we could have mixed use development, infrastructure projects, uh the convention center expansion, as Troy touched on the coordination there is gonna be key, right?

To manage our risk and to make sure that everything is moving according to plan, but also um, you know, they're all within what less than a thousand feet of each other.

We're all in the same same space.

So there should be, and we want to really work on the collaboration side, how we procure things, how we buy commodities, how we do labor.

So we're gonna really look to collaborate to try to create savings, but a very minimum we need to not create competition amongst the small group here that we're actually driving each other's costs up.

So it's got to be a really coordinated collaborative effort, and the EPM is gonna help us work through that process, and it's gonna be important.

Thank you.

All right, committee member Tana, this is the first round.

Y'all got five minutes, second round, you'll get three.

Go ahead.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, couple months ago, Ben and Troy, you gave us a wonderful presentation on the procurement process and solicitation process.

So I probably just need a memory jogger on that.

But um, so for this particular one, you know, there's such an emphasis on experience and background with the 50 points.

Uh, can you can you jog my memory and illuminate uh what your vetting process is to make sure these these uh potentials um are who they say they are and have done what they say they've done because we've we've seen some of that where oh I've done this 10 times and you look into it and you're like they've never done this before.

So just curious as to the vetting process.

I'm sure you have a robust one, but we have um we have a very robust due diligence process that the procurement team actually goes through and vets each of these responses to make sure that what they're saying is accurate.

We look at um have they ever been debarred?

We look at um Google searches, city attorney's office has um resources that are available for past lawsuits.

We have reference checks.

Um we have done in Brad Street to look at their financial solvency.

Um across the board is very robust, and we take all that information, and we actually provide that to the evaluation committees for their consideration as we're looking at that in tandem with the proposals.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

All right, we'll start the second round.

Councilman White.

Yeah, just briefly Ben mentioned the dashboard, and that was uh I guess I don't know if that's in responsible, but we filed that CCR about an accountability dashboard, and so um, I'm glad you mentioned that because we do need to make sure that the public can see, regardless who's in control.

I mean, the public is gonna view that the city is in control of all this, but we do need somewhere where we can see who's being hired, you know, what they're being paid, um where the employees are coming from, the the the whole thing, because that was a big part of the conversation uh at the end of last year before before that county vote.

So I appreciate you mentioning that, and I hope that we can get this dashboard established before any of this really really gets gets moving.

Thanks, Chair.

Thanks.

All right, uh, any if anyone uh to wrap up with item four and five, I think I what we're just looking for is memos in terms of regarding our questions, kind of the follow-up and how you're gonna address some of the concerns uh and and have the answers there.

I think I think the key is in getting this out on Friday.

Um, you letting people know about it, and then making sure that they put together the best plan and um and I encourage anybody who I encourage the staff as they go out and they talk to them to have them look at.

Fortunately, Debbie does a great job of recording this all on TVSA, and Councilman White has been very consistent on what what he'd like to see, and I think the council's been very consistent on terms of timeline, so that hopefully that's included in in what they put forward.

So um, thank you for that.

We're gonna move on to uh this item is for briefing only, so we will move on to item six.

Madam Clerk, please read the caption.

Item six is a briefing on the release of a solicitation for one contract to provide the capital delivery department with construction services for the construction of the Kenwood Community Center at 305 Dora Street for an estimated value of six million one hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

Yes, ma'am, good morning.

Christy Chapman, assistant director for capital delivery filling in for Mike Shannon.

Today I will be presenting on item number six and item number seven.

Item six is the pre-solicitation briefing on the Kenwood Community Center.

The capital delivery department is requesting a request for competitive SEAL proposals for the selection of a contractor to provide construction services for the Kenwood Community Center located in District One.

The former center was demolished in November of 2024, and the new project was funded in 2024 with certificates of obligation.

Just real quickly, the project scope.

It includes a new eight eight thousand eight hundred and square foot community center that will provide nutritional services, health screening services, what'll include free meals for seniors, computer classrooms, arts and crafts spaces, and fitness equipment, and it will also include a satellite office for the council and offices for human services and park and recreation.

The estimated duration for the project is 425 days or roughly 14 months.

The estimated construction contract value is a little over six million.

The NIGP codes used to determine the vendor availability are listed on the slide.

There were 340 vendors in the city's central vendor registry system that can provide these types of construction services, and the solicitation would be advertised through the city's normal methods listed on the slide.

Submittals received will be evaluated using the project scoring criteria listed on this slide.

35 points for experience, background qualifications, as well as the team makeup with key personnel and key subconsultants.

Understanding the project and proposed management plan for 30 points, experience with San Antonio Region and Past Performance 10 points, and pricing 15.

Continuing with the solicitation requirements, the audited financial statements are not required.

The local preference program and veteran-owned small business preference programs are not applicable.

It does include small business subcontracting goal of 7%.

Slide six has the project timeline.

Under the pre-solicitation phase, we have the today's pre-solicitation briefing.

We have the release date of January 30th.

Under the solicitation phase, we have the pre-submittal conference scheduled for February 10th, under which the political contribution black art period starts February 13th.

The deadline for questions is February 17th, and then we have the submittal due date on March 17th, which the solicitation is advertised for about six weeks.

Under the post-solicitation phase, we the evaluation will be complete in April of 26th.

The contract negotiations will be complete May of 26th, and then we'll return the audit committee for the post-solicitation briefing in June of 2026.

And then finally, um council will consider the contract award in August of 26th, and the start contract start date will be September 26th.

And that concludes my presentation.

Thank you.

I know District 1, we both have community centers or projects that are were existing and then needed to just be redone because of uh age and the structure of the building.

So I'm very excited for District One in the City of San Antonio on moving forward on this one.

Uh I think the only I'm glad we're gonna get this out again.

If we could just send out a reminder to council members that there will be a blackout period coming out, and that maybe like the week of February 13th, that they're reminded it begins so that again we are not having to uh see that disqualification.

That's that's my goal for 2026.

So I want to thank you for that.

Is there any comment from my committee members?

All right, this was this item was for briefing only.

Uh we'll go on to uh item seven.

Madam Clerk, please read the caption.

Item seven is the briefing on the release of a solicitation for one contract to provide the capital delivery department with construction services for the construction of the Father Roman Senior Center at 11 11030 Ruidosis Street, located in Council District 3 for an estimated total value of $8,610,000.

Presenting on item number seven.

So the Capital Delivery Department will also issue a request for competitive SIL proposals for the selection of a contractor to provide construction services for the father Ramon community center located in District 3.

This project was actually demoed in March of 2025 and is funded, it was funded in FY2025 with certificates of obligation.

The project scope includes a new 12,000 square foot facility, it will include a gymnasium, classrooms for community programs, dedicated space for parks and rec with some outdoor improvements as well, connecting the building to the adjacent basketball court, new signage, new fencing, and some minor sidewalk repairs.

Like the other project, this estimated contract duration is also 425 days, which is 14 months, and the construction contract values 8.6 million.

The NIGB codes used to determine the vendor availability are listed on this slide.

There were 340 vendors in the city central vendor registry to provide these types of construction services, and we will advertise through the city's normal methods.

The evaluation voting members for this project include David McCarry, the assistant city manager, as well as Nikki Ramos Assistant Director and Sandy Jenkins, project manager from Parks and Rec, and then Richard Cotton, our assistant capital programs manager and Alicia Gomez, project manager and capital delivery.

The evaluation as listed on slide four and includes the 35 points for the background in the team, 30 points for the understanding the project and the proposed management plan, 10 points for experience in the San Antonio region and past performance and price proposal 15 with small business prime contract 10 points.

Again, continuing with the solicitation requirements, the audited financial misstatements are not required.

The local preference and veteran owned preference are not applicable.

And the Sabetta's subcontracting goals is 6%.

Once again, we have the project timeline on slide six.

Um the today is the pre-solicitation briefing.

We will release the solicitation on February 6th.

Under the post-solicitation phase, the evaluation will be complete May 26th.

Contract negotiations followed by June 26, and then we will return to audit committee for the post-solicitation in August 26th.

And then finally, contract award will be before council in September 26th with the contract start date also in September.

And that concludes my presentation.

Thank you.

And this is in District 3, and I appreciate the process though.

Father Oman Center is it's it sits there on the border between the county and what is the city.

So we're really looking forward to this.

This again, this isn't something new.

This is something we have to replace because of the building's conditions, and you we had worked so hard to maintain it, but again, the climate and the drought and made it just in we couldn't use the building anymore because of the soil conditions.

So I'm really looking forward to finding a very good uh qualified contractor that's very excited about going out there in a part of San Antonio that is is up and growing, and I think I think we'll do a really um good job there.

And I hope we can move faster than the timeline says, but really looking forward to it.

So thank you for the presentation.

Uh any comments from committee members?

Yes.

I'll just say congrats on uh on getting this done.

I know you've done it for you've wanted it for a while.

Uh the councilwoman has worked uh so hard on it and been been pushing, pushing, pushing.

And so, you know, the these community centers are so um I think critical, right?

It's places where people can come and gather and and enjoy each other, and so I'm happy you're you're getting it.

Yeah, and and I will I will admit some of the hiccups was the design phase because there was so much that the community wanted to keep in terms of the mural and and how it was getting engaged, but we have such a great design and we're ready to move forward.

So good job team.

Look forward to uh getting this project done, and we'll move on to the next item.

The item is for briefing only, buddy.

Uh this is you, item number eight.

Um would you brief us on the outstanding management actions for prior audits?

Yes, ma'am.

Uh good morning, Chair and uh committee members.

Um Buddy Vargs, the city auditor.

I'll be uh covering the management action plan summary.

Uh wanted to spend some time on the background since we do have new uh audit committee members.

We follow up on each one of our recommendations for prior audits.

Um we include it in this matrix.

Uh there are exceptions to that.

Um it's really just depending on the significance of the observations.

But going through the presentation, uh we start our uh follow-up work at the completion date, and that's the date that's given to us by the departments.

It could hover around that date because we do give the department's opportunity to have enough activity to test.

Sometimes when it gets to that date, there's not enough activity, so we really can't do the follow-up work.

There's also a full re audit option again, depending on the significance of the observations.

We do have two of those that you will not see on this table.

We have the fire department fleet operations, and we have NHSD home improvement.

Those you won't see here, but those are on the 26th audit plan.

Uh, just to give you the descriptions of our categories, we begin our work if management or the department is indicating that the implementation has been complete.

That's when we go in there and we start our work, or uh again we all allow time for the activity to run.

It could be on schedule behind schedule.

If it is behind schedule, it will automatically for our categorization will be verified uh pending.

I do want to also add that some of these numbers change very slightly because we're doing our work daily.

Um, like the first table, it's actually as of today, uh, it's 39 and 2 versus 38 and 3.

The audit verification when we go in and we review if it's implemented as intended, it'll be completed.

If it's implemented with exceptions, it will be in red, and again, verification pending.

There's several reasons for that.

Primarily, we do allow the activity to run for a little while, so we can take a representative sample.

So that's usually the primary reason for the verification pending.

Uh this is how we present our results.

Uh I would just like to share that when you see a solid blue, that mean Nick, that means next time we present this uh table, those will drop off.

So the yellow, red are gonna stay on this table until it does turn blue.

Okay, but if not, this presentation would be tremendously long.

I do want to touch on a few of these just to give you uh highlight some examples.

So, for example, public works, I know it had it has a behind schedule and verification pending.

That's really due to the new departments.

Uh the department split, so we have two departments now.

Um they're doing some research, uh process improvements.

Uh, so they've given us uh uh a new implementation date.

Uh highlighting uh EMS because it's red.

Um the the first entry on EMS is a fee schedule, uh, and that's going to be submitted during the budget process, so that's why that's pending.

Uh in the red, both of those items had uh either a documentation issue or they're still uh not in compliance when we went in and did the work.

But again, we're gonna uh allow that to run and we're gonna continue testing and uh until it's resolved.

Uh I wanted to highlight PCART also.

Uh I do want to highlight the red.

Uh there are occasions where there's multiple procedures or controls that have been implemented.

So just to comment on this one, number two and three have been implemented.

The exception is only related to number one.

So again, that will be that will remain as it's uh corrected.

Uh we can change that status.

And I want to just also just let you know the remainder predominantly the status, if it's in yellow, is because it's in progress.

We're either letting the process run so there's enough activity to review, or it's currently in progress.

And that's all I have, unless you have any questions about the process or any of the uh the statuses for each one of the recommendations.

Thank you, buddy.

Thank you for the update.

Uh this is one thing we we approve the audit, we ask questions on the audit, and it's good to see the um the status as it moves forward.

Does uh anyone uh from the committee have any questions when I asked specifically?

Oh yes.

Buddy, quick question for you.

Um, are is any of the yellow or red uh tied to capacity constraints for the audit team at all in terms of manning?

Currently, no.

Okay.

Um again, the the just to reiterate, we typically allow the activity to run.

So you may see yellow again on some of these.

Um an example is uh uh the airport police is on there.

Uh it was tied to cases.

If they don't have any cases during this time frame, there's nothing for us to review.

Uh and the red is actually activity that we completed, and there were exceptions.

So it's not tied to resource.

Um, but there are times where you'll see some dates that we may not have gotten to yet.

That does occur, but it's not a resource limitation at this point.

Good copy.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

That was a really good question.

I think uh Ben, is as we move forward and we look at uh of course it's always it's always gonna come to ITSD uh and then how we deal with that whole um kind of exit process for employees that move or leave, because I think that's the one thing that has been consistent throughout, is that um when it comes down to it is people still had access, people still had access.

So if we look at the the yellow and the red and see if any of that is a trend where we need to do that, or if it's just departmental, um we can we can look at addressing that.

The other thing is manpower, because as we talk about budget and what departments need what sort of staffing to get this done.

Uh fortunately, I feel like a lot of this is procedural, and our our departments have addressed that, but if it does come down to manpower because they do not have the correct staff, we do need to look at that.

This upcoming budget.

All right.