Spice it up.

All right, the time is uh 10 03 a.m.

on Wednesday, January 21st, 2026, and the meeting of the governance committee is now called to order.

Madam Clerk, please call roll.

Councilmember McKee Rodriguez.

Present.

Councilmember Viacron.

Here.

Councilmember Mungia.

Mayor Jones.

Mayor, we have quorum.

First item on the agenda is approval of the minutes.

Are there any corrections or minutes amendments to the minutes from December 11th, 2025?

Okay, hearing none.

Is there a motion and a second to approve the minutes?

I make a motion to approve.

Great.

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

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

All in favor say no.

Abstentions.

Okay, motion passes.

We have several members of the public signed up to speak.

I'll call the individuals in the order that they signed up, and each individual will have three minutes to speak.

The first person is John Hinehosa.

John Hinehosa.

Okay.

Daryl Greer.

Good morning, Mayor Jones and committee members.

My name is Darrell Greer, and I'm the regional program manager to Oates from AARP, and I'm also a board member of the South Texas Adult Protective Services Community Board.

I appreciate the opportunity to comment on this item.

I want to thank Councilwoman Castillo for a thoughtful policy proposal to enhance senior protection.

The CCR's effort to protect against senior exploitation and fraud is critical and timely.

Financial losses due to scams have reached a staggering 16.6 billion dollars nationally, with Texas ranking second with 1.3 billion dollars in losses according to the FBI.

Oates continues to raise awareness and empower older adults to safeguard their personal information and secure their financial well-being.

Oates remains a committed partner to the city and is ready to offer resources and needed programming to further protect our older adults.

Thank you.

Okay, that's all the individuals that have signed up to speak.

We'll move on to item the action items.

Madam Clerk, please read the caption for item two.

Item number two is a council consideration request from Councilmember Terry Castillo, District 5 on enhancing senior protection.

Okay, great.

Councilmember Castillo is not here, but there is a letter that she provided to the committee which essentially supports the recommendation being made.

Okay, over to staff for the presentation.

Great.

So good morning, Mayor Jones and Governance Committee members.

I'm Melody Woosley, Human Services Director, and I'm presenting on the enhancing senior protection from abuse and exploitation CCR.

And I look forward to your questions after the presentation.

So this City Council consideration request was submitted on December the 3rd, 2025 by Councilwoman Castillo, and also signed by Council members core, Via Gran, Galvan, and Mesa Gonzalez.

The CCR identifies enhancements, education and awareness actions to further protect older adults from exploitation and abuse.

The CCR's recommended actions include enrolling older adults in federal and state do not call registries, providing access to legal services such as assigning trusted guardians, creating living wills, and other legal matters that can help protect from fraud and abuse.

Partnering with financial institutions on quick flagging of suspicious transactions, providing community-wide education and outreach, and reviewing the city's door-to-door solicitation ordinance and code for possible improvements.

Dallas is an example of a city that has implemented non-solicitation improvements to their code.

So human services, San Antonio Police Department, and other partners have a number of measures already in place to help protect our older adults.

Current initiatives offered at our senior centers through human services, financial counselors, and benefit navigators and partner organizations, include assistment assistance with enrollment in do not call registries, referrals for legal services to St.

Mary's Law School, Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid, and Catholic charities.

And in many cases, a financial counselor will go with seniors to those appointments to help them navigate.

And in coordination with SAPD, we launched a fraud and scam awareness campaign in December around the holidays when the number of scams tend to escalate.

The campaign included social media posts and a case ad interview with SAPD and DHS staff.

The campaign is ongoing.

Financial counselors and benefit navigators conduct ongoing training and education sessions on financial security as well as avoiding different types of scams.

They are also in place to help seniors who are experiencing direct impacts from a scam.

Technology training and education include password protections, how to block scam calls, internet scams, and safe online shopping.

Classes are primarily provided by our contracted providers, OASIS and OATS.

Human Services continues to expand partnerships in this area with organizations that are also working to protect older adults from abuse, fraud, and exploitation.

These include Bear County with the Elder Fraud and Exploitation Task Force, which is leading the creation of the Senior Justice Assessment Center.

Adult Protective Services helps train COSA staff and others to recognize and report elder fraud and abuse.

And we are developing partnerships with financial institutions and other organizations to identify suspicious financial transactions and help victims of elder fraud and exploitation recover.

In alignment with the City Council Public Safety Committee Elder Abuse Subcommittee, Human Services is in the process of contracting for a local status of older adults report to identify gaps in needed resources that improve senior well-being and protection.

We will report the findings and recommended actions from that report for review by relevant committees, public safety and the subcommittee, as well as commissions.

Within our current fiscal year 2026 resources, we do plan to further align with SAPD efforts and community partners to protect older adults.

The ongoing marketing campaign, I mentioned earlier, reaches beyond our centers to provide warnings and information to seniors community-wide and development of a senior rights and resource protection guide for distribution to members and the community.

We will work with development services and city attorney's office to review the city's current solicitation ordinance and code for potential updates that would reflect the current environment of old older adult scams and exploitation.

We will continue to focus those senior services, resources, partnerships, and expert staff on reducing older adult isolation, which we know is has a significant impact on older adult well-being and makes them more vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

As next steps, we recommend forwarding the actions recommended in this CCR to the Public Safety Committee, Elder Abuse Subcommittee for review and potential inclusion in existing efforts.

We will implement those program enhancements that are possible within our FY26 resources, provide ongoing updates to the elder abuse subcommittee on this implementation and on the status of the senior study.

Additionally, we will develop cost estimates for expanding financial security fraud awareness and legal assistance beyond our senior centers.

And while we can stretch and do more with what we have, we can't provide the level of services to financial legal technology and awareness to the entire adult community.

We also don't know what the demand is, and so circling back to the to doing the status of older adult study will help us identify and prioritize these gaps.

This concludes my presentation, and we're happy to answer any questions.

Okay.

Councilman McKee Rodriguez.

Thank you, Mayor.

And uh thank you to Councilwoman Castillo, I know you're watching probably, and I see some of her staff in the in the audience uh for uh filing the CCR and making a recommendation to us.

Um I will be supporting staff's recommendations today, uh, and I'll provide a little bit of um I guess background on uh my interpretation of how we got here uh several months ago.

I mean, prior to the to the committee being established, uh, the mayor's charge for the public safety uh committee included uh councilman core appointing members to uh two subcommittees, one of which being the elder abuse subcommittee.

Uh, I'm honored to get to serve on that subcommittee.

Uh we met a few times to discuss uh a plethora of issues.

There was so many things under the bucket of elder abuse that we wanted to address uh from housing to finances to uh every type of fake service that exists in the in the world.

Um we we ultimately ended up with there's going to continue to be ongoing discussion.

We know that there's a number of efforts that are taking place both within the city, within the county, and within a number of organizations, uh, but um we would like to we wanted a full sort of analysis of what is being done out there and are there gaps that are clearly identified, and that would involve working with stakeholders, such as many of our nonprofit partners and the folk who uh were listed in some of these slides here.

And um when it came to council, I remember the uh council or when it came to the committee uh our feedback.

I remember the councilwoman expressing a little bit of dismay that uh you know it's feels like another study that's happening, and we do a lot of studies, and then people disregard those studies and never implement the actual policies.

I do disagree pretty greatly with that.

I think there's a bit of history of that, sure, but I do think that what we have right now is a council and a body that relies very heavily on the recommendations of experts and of those who uh are task forces and whatnot.

And it's it's very similar to recommendations and a number of policy requirement or a number of CCRs that we've gotten to create tasks for task forces uh in which folk get together, meet in a fortnight, discuss an issue, come up with some gaps, come up with some recommendations.

It's the same thing, just a little bit formal and a little bit more robust.

And so I look forward to this uh specific item in some of these recommendations that it sounds like it's fairly simple to implement some of the some of the improvements that have been laid out.

Um but for the rest, I look forward to uh rolling them into the larger discussion and analysis, and I appreciate that in reading all of these slides.

I see all of the a lot of the efforts that are being done, and uh we can see how we wouldn't want to be duplicative in some of those things.

And so, how do we best utilize the resources that exist today, the efforts that are being done today, and then what are the true gaps?

I think is the at the end of the day what uh we're looking for.

Uh so we'll be supportive of staff recommendation.

Thank you.

Councilman Viegeran.

Uh I signed the CCR.

I thank you, staff, for your recommendations.

Uh, however, I am in agreement with Councilman Castillo.

Uh I was on, I was working with SAPD back in 2011 when we talked about elder abuse, and this was elder abuse domestic violence, and we went there and we were like, oh, let's do this.

And they, you know, we just keep on having the same conversations.

And I appreciate the task force that are currently established.

But I have been waiting over 15 years for them to address the needs that we have as seniors, and I think what we need to see is more pointed action, which I think the councilman has here, but I do want to see the committee give their um the public safety committee and the subcommittee give their recommendations.

Uh, however, I do think that this needs to be part of our legislative session as we go up to the state next year or the it just feels like yeah, I was like, does it is it that next year already, as we go up next year to really hone on these people that are predators of our seniors.

If I have to walk into the senior center one more time and hear a story about how someone came into their house, and then while they were showing them around because they said they could help fix this, someone walked in and robbed, it will be it's just very frustrating.

And we do what we can, and then this isn't even talking about online and the 200, 300 they're using.

So I appreciate the efforts.

I think we can implement them, but I think the time is now, and I think we need to set real goals for the um joint commission on elderly affairs and the Bear County task force that we have in front of us because if not, we're just going to talk and continue to talk on this issue.

So I look forward to moving this forward.

Thank you for all your work and effort, and uh, I do hope to see results so that we can take legislation up next year uh of what we would like our uh state representatives to implement to protect our seniors.

Thank you.

Councilman Mugia, uh, thank you, and Councilman Castillo for saying this, and uh Councilman Vigoran agree with so much of what you just said.

I think we have a lot of partners uh out there already that are able to to navigate put some resources in and work on this.

Um of course we also have AERP and Gonzalo Foundation, and so I think it shouldn't take too long to figure this out.

We we know what the problems are, we need to mobilize resources and get it out there.

I think scams are becoming uh better and better, unfortunately.

Um there are things I have to do second look at on my personal emails, right?

Because it's just gotten so much um better with technology and graphics.

So uh we have a lot of places to plug in already with our senior centers and places uh nutrition sites.

Uh and I also agree we do have to do better with our established joint commission.

And I talked to Melody about this recently.

Um, you know, some of those members there feel like they're not being utilized as much as they could be with their own backgrounds and and uh resumes.

So we need to really have them be at the center of this, and uh hopefully they can also present to council or a subcommittee on their work and their goals, right?

I think the housing commission is a great example of they put out a report, they come and they come talk to us, they evaluate uh policies for us and provide recommendations, and we have to do that with the joint commission also.

There's there's a lot of value that exists, and I think they're being underutilized currently.

So I look forward to the task force and getting some recommendations out the door quickly.

Thank you.

Melody, a couple questions for you.

Thank you for the for the presentation and laying out all the good work that currently exists.

And it it looks like many of your recommendations are extend or expand, right?

So doing a lot of what we're already doing.

Um, and that's why um it's really important.

I think just to foot stop um the comments here, we we don't want to be duplicative of the work that's already happening.

Um, and when we say, you know, um better partner with FBI, um, I think we need to understand what what exactly it is we're partnering to do.

Um, what is outstanding for me in this presentation though, and even in the materials that I reviewed before I asked Councilwoman Corps, who just walked in, uh perfect timing.

Um Councilwoman Corps to stand up, the subcommittee on elder abuse is we don't have a lot of metrics in terms we have action metrics, right?

We did this, we did that, we did this, we did that.

It's not clear though how we understand kind of what right looks like and how we understand that all of these efforts and the aggregate are moving us in the direction that we want to go.

Now, to the point, right, that councilman Mungia just made, their tactics, uh, the bad guys' tactics are also improving as we as we modify our own approaches to helping our seniors.

But some understanding of metrics that help us understand not only what we've done, but how it has helped improve the situation would be um important for us to understand, especially as we get into budget season, right?

I mean, frankly, in the 26th budget, that was a lot about you know saving money by not filling positions.

Um, and so if we are looking at some other cost savings as we go into FY27, really having the data that helps us understand how this continues to be the best investment of those resources versus um, you know, frankly, leaning on some of the other partners, leaning on AARP um certainly has has resources.

There are some other entities uh that have resources that we could partner with to do some of this and very important work, or frankly, get a corporate sponsor to help us do some of this work.

Uh it doesn't all have to come from our general fund.

Uh, but I think part of that um having a really good case for them starts with the metrics, right?

With hey, we've seen, right?

You know, corporation X, these are the top five things in our community that really are most beneficial to our seniors.

That's the kind of thing that I think would be helpful for us to better understand how we can better most efficiently utilize our time and resources.

Certainly agree with a point about you know making sure we're also being thoughtful in what those recommendations need to be at the at the state level.

So I appreciate that comment.

But let me let me give you the opportunity to answer.

Do we have some kind of assessment that at this point helps us understand how the aggregate of this work is is improving the situation?

Yeah, we have assessments on how seniors are faring from the senior centers based on the programs that we offer.

So we do surveys, we do um if you've participated in fitness classes or you've been um participating in our meal program, do you feel like your well-being has improved, your health has improved?

It's mostly um survey driven and based on how the seniors are feeling and it how if they feel they're improving.

That's those are the really the metrics around the work that we're doing there.

We also, of course, count the number of meals we serve, how many people are participating, and then the outcome is really based on their responses.

Now, I know SAPD does collect data around the scams that they're pursuing or the complaints that they received.

So we have that as well.

But we can work on, you know, as we're doing the financial counseling in the senior centers.

We have information on how many seniors we've provided, you know, really individualized services to who maybe have come to us because they've they've been involved in a scam and need assistance.

So we're we're collecting all of those, and then you know, the end result as far as did we help the senior achieve financial stability, reduce their debt, maybe stay housed.

So we do collect those as well.

Okay.

I mean just kind of playing this out, right?

Because because again, we um we don't have endless resources, and so I'm trying to just help us understand what are the things that are actually going to move the needle, and in the spirit of intent of the recommendations that are here.

So when we talk about, right, um increasing use of federal and state do not call registries with participant permission, um, us dedicating you know a certain amount of money toward that, which may in fact be the thing that moves the needle the most, right?

I I don't know.

Um do we have some understanding?

Some if we got to a point where when we increase this, right, by 10%, we actually see a decrease in numbers to SAPD by X percent, right?

It helps us understand the correlation between our activities and the impact that we are desiring to see in the community.

Um I'd welcome you working with if it's Craig on the IT side, somebody that helps us, Eric, understand how well these things are are actually working, and it makes us feel good for sure.

I'm just not sure it's it's moving the needle.

And if it is, that's great, but we'd just love to see it, right?

Okay.

How much um what is the contract that we have with Oates?

500,000?

500,000.

Oh, this is digital literacy, is that right?

Yes, got it.

Thank you.

And they're in all of our comprehensive senior centers.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Okay.

Can you give us an update on the status of the senior justice assessment center?

That was a key um, it's referenced here on the on the slide.

Yes.

Um, so the senior justice assistance center is um being founded through a grant that the uh Bear County received.

It's not an actual facility, it's a a way to bring multi um, you know, multi and multi-number of sectors together to provide that assistance.

But I'm going to have Jessica maybe give more detail because she is more familiar with it.

So, as Melody mentioned, um, Bear County did receive a grant.

They updated the commissioner's court in December, uh, mid-December related to that grant.

It is funding staff, so they have a multidisciplinary team that works with other cross-sector partners.

It includes SAPD and human services staff as well as adult protective services, nonprofit partners, uh, legal services, the district attorney's office, and really the goal is to case manage.

So they're bringing individual instances of individuals that either have been targeted for exploitation, scams, or had some other impact, and trying to triage and resource next steps individually by case by case.

So that is ongoing.

It was established in December.

Um so the group is really from the elder uh fraud and abuse task force is the one kind of leading the charge with it, um, and they're just now looking at individual cases, but DHS has been working with that group, even pre-grant to triage individual cases that we're having come up through the senior centers.

And that's a resource that is functioning today.

It is functioning today.

Okay.

I think one of the other things, you know, all the council members have newsletters, um, Melody, right?

We all have our social media channels.

We all want to be resources uh to be helpful here.

So I think um uh however we can be helpful on the comms piece as well.

That'd be my other kind of follow-on ask uh as this moves to the public safety committee is how are we uh utilizing our communications channels to explain that these resources are available and that what they actually provide.

I'm not sure folks are tracking that one.

Um we did something actually in district three where the um the FBI person came and talked about that wonderful resource, right?

Um, but this one had no idea it was up and running until I read your memo.

Uh so we need just to help to help us help you get the word out.

Right.

Well we'll make sure we keep you updated, the subcommittee updated, and um continue to participate in that group and stay very close to what's happening.

Got it.

Okay.

Uh and I do agree with Councilman Mungia's recommendation, um, councilman that uh the joint commission join the subcommittee and provide some update on on their work.

Thanks.

Okay.

Um, all right.

So there's a motion in a second to approve the staff recommendation.

Um, did you have additional comments?

Yep, go ahead.

Yeah, just in hopes to assuage maybe some of the concerns the councilman uh Vegron had mentioned.

It's slide six in here, but it's reads as slide nine on the slideshow.

Um, a part of the discussion that we had at the subcommittee level was uh about our jurisdiction and the authority that we have and many of the state laws that we would like to see changed or uh that we would like to explore.

And so that was one of the recommendations was looking at all the different the different departments reviewing legislative advocacy and potential code updates.

Thank you.

To put a final point on the thing that I'll move to committee though, right?

Um you come with your recommendations, it'd be really helpful to also identify alternative funding sources for that, i.e.

not the general fund.

Partners, partners, collaboration.

That's right.

Someone else's money, that's right.

Um, so there is a motion and a second uh to approve the staff recommendation with the modifications identified here.

Um please vote.

All those in favor?

Opposed.

Okay, motion passes.

Yeah.

You got it?

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay, thanks.

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

Item number three is a council consideration request by council member Dr.

Sook Corps, District One on Community Benefits Agreement Oversight Commission.

Great.

Staff presentation.

Uh good morning, Mayor and Council members.

So this item is a CCR request uh by a councilwoman core in District One.

It requests a establishment of a community benefits oversight committee.

Um, just a little bit of background under the term sheet approved with the Spurs last uh summer for a new downtown arena.

The Spurs would contribute 2.5 million dollars annually over 30 years for a total of 75 million dollars.

Um, those payments run concurrent with the lease term of the new arena.

Uh if the project moves forward as planned, that would begin in roughly 2032.

The term sheet also outlines that the allocation and use of those funds by the city would be based on a process to be developed by the city council.

So this this committee would be part of that process, and they would be tasked with providing formal input and recommendations on how these funds should be allocated and spent on community benefits.

Excuse me.

The committee makeup is proposed here on this slide.

It includes appointments from each uh council member and the mayor.

It's got some recommended categories here for members of the downtown and east side neighborhoods, housing and transportation advocates, labor represent representatives, and hospitality representatives.

It would include one representative appointed by the San Antonio Independent School District, and also one representative appointed by uh Bear County Commissioners Court.

The committee would also include some advisory representation.

That representation would come from the city manager's office, uh, the staff in the city manager's office, a staff representative from Bear County, and a representative from Spurs, Sports and Entertainment.

Some considerations here are we obviously need to coordinate our efforts with the county, our partners, the county, uh, the San Antonio Independent School District and the Spurs uh in order to establish this committee.

Once established, the committee could then uh set establish its procedures in terms of how often it meets what the goals of the committee would be and how it's going to provide that um input and formal recommendations back to the mayor and council.

The staff uh city staff will assist in coordinating with community uh engagement, um assisting in hosting public forums and establishing priorities for the CBA prior to the commencement of the lease on the arena.

So the next steps would include a recommendation guided by the CCR where we do develop the process and plans and timeline to create the committee.

We would include the identification of the city department or liaison back to this committee, uh begin the process to identify uh representatives for the committee, and then um evaluate opportunities to engage the community as we go to work through this process.

We would also consider engaging a consultant.

I know this was discussed a little bit last week at B session.

Uh, we could engage a consultant or group that's got some expertise or experience in uh community benefit agreements that could assist and advise as we work our way through this process.

So that is the staff recommendation.

Mayor and council members would be happy to answer questions.

Councilman Corps is here as well.

Uh you've got three minutes if you'd like to say something.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

Um, and this request really came from community members that joined us in the community engagement sessions that we had last summer, where they felt like they didn't know they were providing input on the community benefits agreement in the survey that was done by Able City.

Um that survey did show some priority areas that folks wanted to spend these dollars on, but there wasn't really enough uh information that they were being able to provide.

It was more of an info session versus real true engagement.

So the goal for this committee would be to actually work with communities to help figure out what priorities are to how to spend these dollars.

The reason we wanted to start this now and not when the deal was done was because we think true community engagement takes time, and this would allow for uh several potentially several years of lead up to the actual allocation of those dollars.

We shared this uh potential CCR with a lot of stakeholders with our council colleagues, received feedback on the types of folks to be included.

I understand there's a concern about why we included the county, and I've had this conversation with several of you all.

And while I understand that the CBA is being overseen as a part of the city term sheet, I do think it's important for us to work with the county together throughout the entire process as we move this forward.

So having them have one seat versus our 11, I don't think um gives them majority, but at least shows them that we want to partner with them and work together on making sure that our CBA addresses all of our communities.

And that was a similar ideology for SAISD.

We are effective, we are this new stadium is going to be located in SAISD, Frostbank Center is an SAISD.

So we want to make sure that we're always reaching out to our partners to help in and work with them and make sure that they are feeling like they are a part of this conversation.

As far as the staff recommendation, I think it's um I'm comfortable with the stack recommendation.

I do believe that if they if you all feel like a consultant is necessary to help provide some um structure for the agreement.

I think there is a concern across the country about how agreements are executed and making sure that year over year those funds are received and then provided out to the community, and then the results of those funds are presented back to city council.

So I think that my uh council colleagues that signed on to this agreement and hope that we can show the community that community engagement didn't finish last summer when uh we finished that first round of Able City, but we'll be continuing to move forward in order to be able to expend the 75 million dollars in in the priorities of the community.

Thank you.

Okay, is there a motion and a second to approve the staff recommendations so we may begin discussion?

Okay.

There's a motion to continue the item until the next meeting.

Uh do we have a date for that?

You need a specific date, is that right, Clerk?

Uh I think we're okay.

Okay.

That's correct.

Yeah.

I I second that motion.

Okay.

Okay.

Um, there is a motion and a second to continue the item until the next governance meeting.

Um those in favor saying do you want to provide some okay?

Go ahead.

Um I I want to convey to the councilwoman that I appreciate the spirit of the C CR.

I don't wholeheartedly disagree with it, right?

And I can I I want to get to a point of full acceptance, but I also want to have maybe a greater discussion uh between now and the next meeting about I I guess one of the primary challenges I have is that we don't have we don't have an executed contract right now.

So we don't there's a we don't have a CBA, there's it's in the air, there's 75 million dollars as a term.

I really I really believe that what the community wanted and expected was that they would be able to provide a meaningful input to the term sheet, which I don't know was was done, and I understand the the goal to rectify that with this and with the 75 million dollars, but I do struggle with and some of the conversation we've had previously is is it going to be 75 million dollars all at once or is it gonna be 2.5 million dollars?

And then do you really have a commission of 15, 16 people talking about 2.5 million uh 2.5 million dollar recommendation to the city council, and then city council's priority being entirely different.

And so I I just wonder if there's another I wonder if there's a means to achieve the level of feedback that we're looking for that takes a different form.

And maybe it doesn't, maybe it is this at the end of the day, but I'd like to have further discussion and conversation on it.

Councilman Mongeo.

Uh thank you, Councilman Corps.

I I signed the CCR and I'm supportive of this CCR.

Um I think it does merit some additional conversation, especially because I don't think we need to hire consultant to do this type of work.

I think there's plenty of people, you know, in our community that are able to give us some really good advice on how to run this.

And you know, I hear actually also from Councilman Corps' constituents that'll text me too sometimes, people I know in district one.

And I think this is just you know, I think people were like, okay, it passed the term sheet passed, the vote passed.

Okay, we gotta keep moving on to the other pieces of it and get community input.

And so people are very, very interested in the CBA and making sure it's going to some you know really core community service areas and not just you know, here's a little check for this, a little check for that, a little something over here.

And people want to be involved in this, right?

I don't necessarily know that it's a rectifying of of something else, but even people who are opposed to it say, okay, it passed, this is the next step.

How do we get involved and get the community involved in this?

And I imagine something uh you know, large and public, and people get to put their give their input with a lot of data presented to folks about our community, so people can kind of parse and choose what areas of issues we have merit this type of investment uh and not just in that area, right across the entire city of San Antonio.

Um and so I think it you know it merits some conversation.

The other thing is even um even though I signed this, right?

Somebody came up to me and said, Well, you know who's not on their small business, right?

And says, okay, that's fair enough, right?

We should have someone on small business be a part of this board that kind of helps govern it.

And I think the idea that Councilman Corr and I discussed was not having these recommendations really come from us, right?

We all have our great ideas, right?

And where we want to put money towards, but we really want the community outside of this building to help determine that, uh, of course, with our with our support at the end.

So I think we've got to find ways to do that meaningfully uh across the city with meetings and having data and and collecting information and not force feeding people what we should invest in, but really have it be organic.

Uh and so I think we can certainly get to that point.

And councilman core and I did have a lot of discussion too about the county, and it was a very healthy discussion of my concerns with them participating.

But I think if the county you know participates, it it's we should ask them to also put in money into this too, right?

Uh I think they would help us with this if they get to help direct some of these fundings because uh, you know, all San Antonians are county residents, uh, and they are doing a lot of work in the area also, whether we agree with it or not, they have some authority over the buildings that they own, and we've got to have some sort of concise plan for this development downtown, but also uh where we decide to invest uh this money.

So I think we can get a lot more answers and and finer points uh next month when we meet.

Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Um I I don't think we're at the point for this.

Um if you went out into my community today, I could tell you what they tell you they want the money for, and it's public safety.

That's what it would be.

And I don't know that this council wants to hear that, that they want us to invest more in public safety because that's where the community benefits the most.

So with that, I think the other thing I I that I find problematic is appointing people to manage something that we were elected to manage.

So I think I think this is something where the council members need to be present on.

The school board members need to be present on, and we need to have an elected official, an elected school board member and an elected county if we're going to go in that direction.

And I understand we want to talk about a community benefits agreement, but I really think we need to get the deal done because I know the east side and the southeast side will be impacted by this move.

And those school districts are not necessarily SAISD, you know.

Um right now it feels very centered towards still the downtown area.

And I don't see it going if this is a community benefits agreement for the entire community.

I I'd like to see how the other districts weigh in on this also.

And that's my concern is that it would be public safety or streets and roads, where I we were thinking as a council, we were thinking child care, education, we were thinking other things.

And so that's I want us to be very thoughtful as we move forward.

So I think we need a lot more discussion rather than let's just point appoint members.

Um because it it's gonna have to be our voice.

And um I do think the county needs to pay in.

I think I think we need to give opportunities if we're gonna move in in education to let other school districts that are gonna be impacted.

This school districts that are open to uh you know, our open school districts that allow students from all over the city to come to have a say in this, also.

So um that that's uh that's why I want to have us at governance have more conversation about where this really goes because I'm leaning towards a B session rather than any committee.

Thank you.

Okay.

I think on this um topic.

Did you have something else you want to add?

Councilman McKee Rodriguez.

Thank you.

And I guess just to the I guess to that end uh that council member Mungia had mentioned.

Is it you know, is it how many boards and commissions do we have where we each have an appointee and they don't necessarily go out to the community and solicit feedback and collect surveys and do events and whatnot?

That's not a volunteer commission, that's not their role or their job.

We could collect so much more feedback through so many more of our so many of our other tools of engagement.

We just have to do it in a meaningful way.

I also think it touches a lit it, I worry about it encroaching a little bit on the term sheet and some of the goals that were stated by council uh previously, which is you know that the east side is done right.

If you leave, if you're going if the Spurs are going to leave the east side, then the East Side is going to get something out of this, and then you set up a board or a commission like this, and there's 3,000 West Side Council members, 3,000 North Side Council members, and 3,000 South Side Council members, and there's all this proximity and connection.

The east side is outweighed again, and specifically the community that is directly impacted by this move and this change that we're doing.

Uh and so I'm I hopefully at the next meeting we'll be able to be able to have a conversation about other types of engagement as well as if we were to move forward with a commission.

What does the makeup look like?

And is it equitable for it to be one council member for every district?

Does that make sense?

Is you know, maybe it does, maybe it doesn't.

Uh, but there's still I would love to have those conversations with you, Councilman Corps, and I'd like to uh discuss a little bit more with city staff.

Thank you.

Councilman McGill.

Um yes, councilman, I agree.

Um, and also I, you know, in high school attended SA 2020, I and I kind of think about that in some aspect for this type of engagement, uh, because it really was driven by community, right?

And council members and city were involved, of course, but we basically they laid out the the information to folks and said, okay, this is all the data around the whole city.

Uh and then they developed very specific, you know, this is for schools, there's our goals for schools, these are our goals for seniors, this is our goal for infrastructure for transportation, uh, and then kind of worked on those, you know, separately.

And so a lot of community members, and it was a whole nonprofit set up, right?

That pushed those ideas and worked on them.

Uh, and I don't think that we relinquished any authority in that sense when we did that, but it was a lot of community input.

And I agree with you that there definitely has to be a very special attention to the east side, as you said, because that is gonna be the most affected uh area of the city, and so certainly nothing should outweigh the the need and desire that all of us have said that needs to be over there.

So I I completely agree with you on that.

Um, so I think that's a lot of feedback, good feedback for for Eric to take back and kind of develop a plan around that.

Uh and I agree, I don't think this goes to a council committee versus you know the full council weighing in on this because it's a huge decision.

And I also talked to the mayor and to Sook about this too, is trying to find ways to increase contributions um through partners, foundations, companies into this fund because the the two and a half every year is not going to be enough for significant investment.

So we have to find ways and get people involved to get millions more over time into this.

So thank you.

Councilman Mungia just signed himself up to get matching contributions to everybody that just gave to the Spurs pack, right?

Is that what you're doing?

Okay.

Um I'm gonna hold my breath on that one.

Um so look, I think this is really important that we manage expectations, right?

Um, 2.5 million dollars, as has been reiterated here, 2.5 million dollars when you think a speed bump costs 16k, 2.5 million dollars is 156 speed bumps.

So this doesn't go very far.

I think to the point that Councilman McKee Rodriguez um made earlier, we really want to make sure that we're not expending a lot of time and energy on at the end of the day what's just not a lot of money annually, right?

Unless you look at if you wanted to, and this is maybe Ben, where you can help us be creative, do we save it for 10 years, right?

And all of us, and then do some kind of matching with some with somebody else.

My instinct though tells me that is not necessarily what the community wants.

The community would like to see that uh investment immediately and and annually.

Um, but 2.5 million, 156 speed bumps, you could to the councilwoman's point, you probably point to where all those would go just in district three, right?

So I um I agree with um with with continuing the item.

I um fundamentally uh at this point do not um I don't support the idea of of the county having some some voting say in how we're gonna spend the money that we negotiated.

Um the county gave 311 million dollars with no CBA.

I know county commissioner is is trying to get a CBA now, but as in the real world, once you've already spent the once you've already given the money, it's really hard to negotiate anything back.

So unless we have some commitment from the county um that we would be privy to um any CBA that they negotiated, I'd be very reluctant to um for them to have any kind of voting or formal say uh in how we spend again this very small amount of money, 2.5 million dollars, right?

Okay.

I couldn't agree more with this idea that we um don't want uh even that 2.5 million to be in any way dissipated into consultant fees um all of a sudden that's like less than two million once you take out the consultant fee.

I completely agree with councilwoman via Grand that uh council members can steer this conversation quite quite effectively.

Okay.

Um okay, so there is a there being no further discussion.

Uh there is a um a motion and a second uh to continue this item to the next governance committee.

All those in favor say aye.

Opposed.

Okay, the motion passes.

Mayor, just one thing.

Um, so um I don't want to leave the impression that we necessarily want to hire any more consultants.

The concept there, and we we can talk about more about it in the future as the committee engages on this issue, was just for a small amount of money, engage someone who has experience doing the things you guys described in other parts of the country or other communities, leverage, you know, what is the structure, just somebody from an experiential, not to do the work, but just somebody who's gone through the swamp and dealt with that.

So it would not be a high cost, but that that aside, I just wanted to provide some context and we'll prepare for a future conversation.

To that point, though, before we move on, I I think it would be very helpful for us to understand the internal capacity to do something like that, Eric, like a CNE, right?

Um capacity that would, you know, if we were to identify kind of 10 issues and then go survey the committee, the community, right?

You again, just because of the amount of money we're actually talking about, um, what is the most effective way that gets us to you know what's probably a 90% solution of whatever the consultant would actually also help us arrive at, right?

Yeah, yeah.

And and and uh I'll I'll say that that's part of the um the the calculus we need to do on a whole bunch of things, not just this in terms of capacity of C and E.

were to identify kind of 10 issues and then go survey the committee the the community right you again just because of the amount of money we're actually talking about um what is the most effective way that gets us to you know what's probably a 90 percent solution of whatever the consultant would actually also help us arrive at right yeah yeah and and and uh i'll I'll say that that's part of the um the the calculus we need to do on a whole bunch of things not just this in terms of capacity of CNE the the only thing that we would be asking if we did this at some point in the future is just how did other communities or other entities uh leverage organize uh get private funding get other public entities just somebody from a from that standpoint but we would certainly the I know the councilwoman um councilwoman core talked about the community feedback part of it that was not contemplated as we talked about that um the recommendation on a consultant it was just on what what do you do to organize leverage multiply and um and structure that from a dollar standpoint we'd still do everything else but we'll we'll we'll be prepared for a future conversation I think that would help us then for the next um for the next when this is brought up again to the next governance committee um Ben if you could and and less on the consultant side but I think helping us think creatively I think the amount of energy and time that we would spend on this is helping us understand what is possible with that money right if we're talking about 2.5 a year right that's not that hard but if you're saying hey here's a creative financing thing that we could do you know we do this every five years and and there's some matching thing that's that's different those are the types of things that would be helpful for us to consider the amount of time and effort we put into the commit the committee thanks go ahead I I briefly brought this up to Ben I think it's worth discussing in the next meeting is doing a revenue bond with this fund.

So obviously we wouldn't get 70 million dollars in a loan but if it's a consistent two and a half million dollars every year payment technically we could go out for a bond and get a huge chunk up front uh and invest.

Is that true?

A huge chunk that's a financial term so go ahead so you take the 75 million dollar cash flow you'd have to build in you know assumed interest costs you're not going to get 75 million lump sum it'll be something less we can run those scenarios we can do it a periodic scenarios the other thing you'd have to think about is when you think about uses of that funding it have to be something that is debt eligible so if it was a um an operating kind of contribution we wouldn't be able to do that but those so some of the we can lay out some of those parameters if if you like at the next uh governor's committee meeting I think councilwoman Viacadan already has emails from 156 of her constituents who need a speed bump so okay we'll move on to the final item madam clerk please read the uh caption item number four is the council consideration request by council members Terry Castillo District five and Mark White District 10 on the creation of a Spurs arena project accountability dashboard go ahead Ben so mayor and council members this is a request to create a publicly accessible uh Spurs arena project uh dashboard that would track implementation of the project financing delivery of commitments made by the Spurs organization the city and the county as uh if the project moves forward with the construction of a new downtown arena um the components in the dashboard are outlined in the CCR included project transparency fiscal accountability community benefits monitoring public safety and infrastructure and then open open data and public access to data related to the project um just to highlight some of the current efforts and things that we're working on um we talked about this in B session last week but we did we did issue a request for qualifications last week for a executive program manager for the district so not the arena project specifically but the sports and entertainment district that executive program manager or EPM their job is really to help us oversee the district the projects the collaboration and coordination of activities within the district all the projects infrastructure venues and the mixed use development one of the one of the deliverables we have in that contract will be helping us set up a dashboard the slide says Spurs arena project accountability dashboard we're recommending and and what we want it would like to do is set up a a um sports and entertainment district dashboard the arena project would be one component of that so all the things were mentioned on the previous slide would be built in you could drill down on that project but would propose or recommend that we do it on the district so that you could do that on the arena project you could do that on uh the convention center expansion project if it moves forward whatever projects we're working on within the district this dashboard would capture that data and the community would be able to see our progress as we move forward um so next steps again uh mentioned that that RFQ did get released last um Friday we are shooting to get that back to council for your consideration on a contract by mid April in there again the slide says Spurs Arena project accountability dashboard we're recommending sports entertainment district dashboard of which the arena project would be a component um so that's our recommendation um once we have the consultant on board we can work on the design of that district uh dashboard bring that back uh show you what that looks like um there would be a little bit of system integration too we want it to be a dashboard that's feeding off of our system system so there'd be a little bit of integration that would be built into the contract as well with that uh mayor would be happy to answer any questions uh let's see he's not back there is there councilman white no okay okay um is there a motion and a second

Umce we have the consultant on board, we can work on the design of that district uh dashboard, bring that back, uh show you what that looks like.

Um there would be a little bit of system integration too.

We want it to be a dashboard that's feeding off of our system systems, so that would be a little bit of integration that would be built into the contract as well.

With that, uh Mayor would be happy to answer any questions.

Uh see he's not back there.

Is there councilman white?

No, okay.

Okay, um, is there a motion and a second to approve the staff recommendation so we may begin discussion?

I move to approve the staff recommendation.

Okay.

Uh as the uh one of the neither of the sponsors are here, are there additional comment around the table?

Go ahead.

Yeah, Ben, um I I want to get the RFQ done.

I don't know how specific we want.

I y'all uh you know my support for using technology.

So I want it to be able to be easily accessible for the public.

If they're like, oh yeah, we do this, but you need a code if you're a vendor and things like that.

I want them to be very specific, they have to do that separate to what we are asking for.

Is that the general public through our through whatever website we have can go on and see the progress.

Now, if they're gonna do a separate for um vendors or contractors to check things, because we've talked about what we want this uh EPM to do, they can do that on the other side, but I do not want it attached to what is public facing, and I don't need the business portion there where my my residents have to navigate through it.

I want them to be able to simply get to here's the progress.

No, absolutely understood.

We want this to be a community-facing dashboard that's easily um accessible, easily, you know, you can easily understand what's happening with G's of the project, so that would be part of that.

This design of this dashboard would be that.

Anything that we're doing on the backside for managing the projects, that would be kind of on the business side of the house, that we would be um monitoring projects and looking at schedules, that detail would be there.

This would really be the community facing piece.

The other part I failed to mention, councilman.

I'm glad you said that that the thing we talked a little bit about as well.

I got a little bit of feedback from some of the council members about um how we continue to provide updates.

The dashboard's one way to do that.

The other was could we create some reporting out of the dashboard that's highlighting significant things that are happening within the district?

Maybe it's monthly or quarterly, we can push that reporting out to to you all, the mayor of the council members.

Uh, if you want to include those in newsletters, we can push that out through C and E.

Um, so we've talked about building that into this piece as well.

Yeah, because what I'd really like, because I want our residents to use technology, is if the mayor does get interviewed by case out or does her weekly thing, that she can she is confident in that if they go to this website, it's gonna be easy to use and they're not gonna end up in three different places or need to provide their email and things like that.

So that that's one thing I really because I really think we can do this to where uh and this is probably my visit San Antonio hat coming on, is where we can do this where other destinations look at wow, look at what San Antonio did to keep their public informed.

So thank you, Ben, for that clarification.

Thank you.

Councilman McGill.

Yeah, I didn't necessarily see it on the bullet, but I think a key component is if we're having any public meetings on any of the components to the projects that that'd be on there.

So, you know, if someone's really interested in the courthouse and in that development, they can toggle on that and see whatever public meetings are coming up on there.

Um I think that's an extra thing that would be helpful.

Thank you.

Councilman.

Councilman uh McKee Rodriguez.

Um thank you.

Just I guess what I'm wanting to understand, it's not just going to be the capital project itself, but my understanding and my understanding is that this is to hope to address another one of the community requests uh of council members, uh, which was a dashboard of sorts, and it wasn't just about completion of the arena itself or any of the capital projects, it was also about elements of the contract being fulfilled and accountability in that sense.

And even then, I don't entirely know that it's accountability.

I think it's more transparency.

Because accountability assumes two-way communication and answering for actions and whatnot, but that's neither here nor there.

Um will it include those other elements?

I think we can really look at those councilman.

So some of the things that were listed in the CCR are listed here, like community benefits is obviously outside of the the construction of the projects.

I think as we move forward with the district, we can build the dashboard out to capture some of those other um, I guess significant milestones or things happening, or you know, things that are happening inside of the agreements.

I think we can put that in place as part of the district.

So this is the request, and so your understanding and the what you're asking, what you're going to include in the contract is going to be this, because that's not what was written at the end.

So this is uh definitely the stuff we're looking at, and then you know, at the end of the recommendation, what we're talking about is just taking that, which is more specific to the arena.

We want to broaden it to the district.

So if there are similar things happening with the convention center expansion project, whatever those are, we'd want to be able to put that out there, say, here's the district, I want to drill down and understand more about the convention center project.

Uh Councilman Gia just mentioned the the Wood Courthouse of Innovation.

If that move forward, you know, the information related to that, if we contract with somebody there, what does that look like?

So really trying to build the district out, but then give give the community the ability to de to drill down in different parts of the district.

I guess throw in the missions uh stadium while we're at it.

We had not contemplated that as part of the the dashboard, but we can we can kind of think about that as well.

Might be a good idea.

Thank you.

Okay, so there's actually a couple of amendments just based on what's been discussed here.

So the staff recommendation originally on the piece of paper is this is just for the Spurs Arena.

Ben has um asked that that be amended to include the entire um sports and entertainment district, and then there's been an additional discussion of adding the missions baseball uh project to this.

So um how do we need to do that, Madam Clerk?

Do we need to take those amendments separately?

The motioner would like to amend your motion.

The motion or would okay.

Uh the motioner would like to uh amend to the San Antonio sports and entertainment district.

Uh and what was the second one?

The missions baseball.

Oh uh to include the um missions baseball field baseball projects.

Baseball project, sorry.

Okay.

Um it's second.

Okay.

Um before we vote on that, is that that's a those are two projects on two very different timelines.

Um how do you anticipate um supporting being able to do that?

The dashboard on, for example, the baseball piece.

I think on the ballpark project, uh um maybe to come back and kind of map that out a little bit because that one is going a little bit faster.

But I think um our goal is again have the EPM on board by you know mid-April.

I think um because my understanding is the EPM contract is not in, I mean, in reviewing it, it doesn't include the baseball stadium.

That's correct.

Right.

Okay.

Uh but I was something we could talk with them once they're selected about standing that up.

Once we stand the dashboard up, it's really just a function of how we integrate that, where we're pulling data from.

Um, I think we could certainly uh work that in at that point in time.

It just may be councilman after so if it's April, if the thing stays on track as what we have right now, you'd be considering the contracts in June, but the project wouldn't actually be break ground until sometime after that.

So the construction pieces, the elements of monitoring, some of that we could build into the EPM.

It just wouldn't be on the very front piece of it.

Do you have a model in in mind?

Like who who which city has, I mean, I know PFCs, you've had PFCs in Dallas and other places.

Are how are they, or do you have a dashboard in mind that's working well that you're kind of thinking as a model?

We have not I've not looked at any any city-specific ones that we've looked at.

Um I think this is something we'll work with our EPM, draw on their experience, uh, go out as we bring them on board to design this and look at that.

We'll look at some of that.

Um I mean, this one's gonna be a little bigger because a lot of them you see here tend to be more project oriented, a single project.

We're really talking about something much broader, which I do think makes sense.

I think from a community engagement transparency piece, I think we need to be able to show um these major investments and what we're doing.

So it's just something we're gonna have to work through once we get them on board.

Um how might we ensure that we're tracking some of the things that might also be a public interest, not just how quickly is the project done, but also like, hey, how much money is coming in, right?

For example, to the PFC.

So this would this dashboard would be able to show how much money is coming into the PFC.

Um we could.

I mean, I think we just need to think about how we um manage how much we put on the dashboard and at what level of detail so we don't um maybe overwhelm people with the amount of stuff we're putting out there.

I think we have to just be thoughtful about how we organize it.

But those things can be built in.

I think what I would envision, Mayor, is we get the EPM on board, we design it.

I think we come back to you all as uh the mayor and council in the B session, show you this is what we think the design looks like.

Get your feedback and input as you hear from the community and things that are important to them, we can revise and adjust that.

And so I think that'll be a uh helpful exercise for us to go through with y'all as well.

Yeah.

Uh because you know, the other thing, as we've to the councilman's point about just keeping this very high level for folks, right?

How much money one is is coming in to the PFC, but then also how is that distributed right among the the projects?

How is that distributed among the infrastructure, right?

Um to the extent you know we're gonna have our meeting here later about debt management.

And I think folks want to understand uh, you know, you've already got a big chunk of money, for example, going to downtown infrastructure.

What then why then might we still need to do something on the infrastructure bond?

Why why could we not just use the PFC resources?

Right?

So those are the kinds of things uh that we want to be able to understand and we can understand that better based on how much money is flowing in.

But also the thing that we talked about last week, which is your analysis that shows us the distribution of money from the PFZ, in fact, results in the highest ROA ROI of that 2.5 billion.

Okay.

Okay.

Um so we will see also something relatively soon, uh, given this now includes the baseball stadium.

About what a mock now, just to be very clear, would that would we not see that until the EPM contract is signed?

Yes, that's correct.

We're gonna need their help putting this together, designing it, making sure we can do some of the mapping back to our back office system so that that dashboard um is pulling the data on a regular basis, so it's getting updated.

So we're gonna need their help to help us map that out.

We got a number of different systems we're probably gonna have to sync up with.

Okay.

Okay, so there is a motion and a second um on the um on the staff recommendation as amended, right?

So now expanded um uh expanded scope, which is the sports and entertainment district as well as the baseball arena.

Um all those in favor say aye.

All right.

Opposed.

Okay, the motion passes.

Okay.

The time is now 11.

Oh, actually, uh John, are you back there?

Did he leave?

Sam popped in that public comment guy, he left.

Okay, I was gonna give him some time, but he's left.

All right, the time is now 1110 and the meeting is adjourned.

Thank you.