All right.

Well, at 1032 a.m.

on April 23rd, 2026, we will officially call the community health meeting to order.

Madam Clerk, will you please call the roll?

Councilmember Castillo.

Councilmember Avarete Gavito.

Councilmember Mesa Gonzalez.

Councilmember White.

Chair Galvan.

Here.

Sir, we have a quorum.

Thank you so much.

First thing to do, we have to uh review the minutes.

Any uh changes to the minutes.

If not, can you get a motion to approve?

In a second.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Any abstentions?

Great.

Uh next to move into public comment.

Madam Clerk, do we have any public comment?

Great.

All right, then we'll move into item number two, the update on San Antonio's heat resilience playbook.

Committee, my name is Laura Patiño, and I'm the director for the Department of Resilience and Sustainability.

With me today is Doug Melnick, Assistant Director for our department, as well as many other partner departments as a key testament to the interdisciplinary nature of this work and heat management.

So this presentation comes.

Thank you.

This presentation comes following the council consideration requests from April 16th, 2025 for tracking and preventing heat related deaths.

So today's briefing provides an update on San Antonio's heat resilience playbook, its connection to the 2025 Council Consideration Request on Heat Rated Deaths, and the city's summer 2026 heat communications and response plans.

Briefly, I want to take the time to highlight the reasoning behind a heat resilience playbook.

San Antonio has experienced a series of records.

We are experiencing hotter and longer heat seasons with more frequent extreme heat days and documented increases in heat related illnesses.

This means a direct impact to public health.

On the slide depicted, published by San Antonio Metro Health Department in their heat related illnesses dashboard, we can see the number of heat related illnesses by month reported.

Since 2022, we have reported nearly 2400 heat related illnesses, categorized by dehydration, fainting, heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke.

Those impacts are not evenly distributed.

Using Metro Health data as well as UTSA's heat vulnerability mapping, we can see that residents in hotter, lower canopy, and higher vulnerability areas face greater risk.

We utilize this map to understand where interventions need to go across the city of San Antonio.

So to take action, we have developed the city's first heat resilience playbook.

The heat resilience playbook is a city's implementation roadmap for extreme heat.

The playbook has 52 actions, and they're divided into new actions, existing actions, and improvements.

I'm happy to share that over 80% of these actions are ongoing.

All departments that are reflected in the implementation of these actions are depicted on this slide.

And we have identified specific leads as the work continues to move forward.

This is work that our departments are already implementing and built within their day-to-day operations.

This graphic depicts their contributions and further demonstrates the level of interdepartmental alignment and collaboration that needs to take place in order to advance extreme heat and that continues to advance this work.

Being prepared and resilient to extreme heat requires all of us.

So San Antonio's heat resilience playbook is comprised of two overarching goals, safe and prepared San Antonians, and cooler neighborhoods.

It has four objectives, 11 action areas that lead to 52 actions.

These are our organizing principles and allow us to focus on human-centric heat response and inference infrastructure-centric adaptation to the built environment.

Within our four objectives, we aim to increase awareness and outreach through approaches that ensure San Antonians are connected and equipped to navigate hot summers.

This includes training, communications, and data, heat relief to provide access to resources for the most vulnerable, our indoor and outdoor workers, and the general population, our built environment to strengthen and adapt homes and buildings, and our parks and green spaces to provide cooling benefits and maximize quality of life through tree canopy and land resources.

To show how the playbook is moving into implementation, I wanted to highlight a few examples today.

So under Awareness and Outreach, we will be addressing two actions heat outreach to the most vulnerable and health dashboards for heat.

For heat outreach to the most vulnerable, the action consists of launching a coordinated heat risk awareness campaigns to reach San Antonio's most vulnerable residents.

Various departments are already conducting heat outreach to the unhoused, the elderly, children, and other vulnerable populations.

This effort will allow us to not only align our cross departments but also understand the outreach mechanisms that work best and provide those tool kits and skills to other departments.

To date, we have completed two surveys, one internal and one external to understand the barriers.

These include awareness of resources to residents, distrust of city, shortage of resources to deploy information from departments, transportation and access to location difficulties by residents, literacy, digital divide, and reaching houseless residents.

By the end of this fiscal year, this effort will provide a toolkit that can be employed by various departments to conduct this outreach.

The next action that I'd like to highlight is the tracking of heat related deaths.

Metro Health has been researching the best way to capture heat related mortality data by discussing with other cities within Texas as well as other states, including Arizona and also the Bear County Medical Examiner's Office.

Tracking deaths to heat is complicated, and the team will continue to research methods to better estimate the impact that heat is having on our community.

Currently, the most standard method for collecting death data is through death certificates.

Metro Health will add death data to their current heat related illnesses dashboard starting this year.

Since these data are from the state of Texas, data suppression rules must be followed.

This means that if there are less than 10, they cannot be released and will be marked as such.

Under heat relief, we will be addressing one action, which is enhancing the network of places to stay cool.

On cooling access, the city is working to expand and diversify its places to stay cool network, including two pilots, mapping existing public and potential private sites, and coordination with the climate-ready neighborhood network partners.

The long-term goal is a formalized and visible cooling network.

By the end of this fiscal year, the team aims to have one to two partnerships in place to represent other potential partners within the places to stay cool map, as well as address the barriers that exist for the most vulnerable to access resilience hubs and the places to stay cool.

Next, we have heat resilient mobility and heat resilient capital investment.

Mobility hubs are key for resilience.

Transportation department has completed a walkshot analysis for the first four green line stations and is conducting an evaluation of shade.

Shade structures and tree planting around these stations in specific neighborhoods are also being considered.

By the end of this fiscal year, we aim to finalize design for bus shade structure as pilots and explore commitments with partners for shade within the right-of-way.

Long term, we aim to develop a framework to scale integration of heat resilient solutions within the transportation system.

Next is heat resilient capital investment, which aims to align our infrastructure investments with heat resilience.

To date, Department of Resilience and Sustainability, Capital Delivery Departments, Public Works Departments have identified recommendations that can be included in plant sets and developed internal scorecards to help evaluate and establish resilience and sustainability metrics within projects.

In the last section of the playbook, we will address tree planting and the cool neighborhoods program.

Looking at progress for fiscal year 2026, the parks department is fully on track to hit their primary targets.

Currently, they have funded and committed resources for over 11,000 new trees across the city.

To break that down, there is funding for 400 trees along our streets and 500 trees in our parks, focusing on engineering those critical shade corridors and green spaces where they're needed the most.

The most impressive part of the FY26 strategy is the magnitude of community reach.

Already over 10,000 trees have been committed for residential tree plantings, adoptions, and giveaways as part of the parks education and outreach efforts.

And finally, I would like to conclude with our bespoke program, the cool neighborhoods program, which is aiming at implementing tried and proving proven heat mitigation efforts, many that we've covered today, and concentrating them in priority vulnerable population neighborhoods to maximize the temperature reduction.

To date, we've installed 28 miles of cool pavement across the city with a focus on district two, three, and five.

And five additional miles are to be completed by the end of this fiscal year.

Neighborhood housing and services department will complete an additional 75 roof replacements for cool roofs in these target areas, with over 600 already being completed citywide since 2022.

And parks will plant an additional 250 trees in those neighborhoods.

We are working with UTSA research and evaluation, and the evaluation will be concluding for the results to be provided to understand how these interventions are implemented and can be scaled citywide.

Now, this concludes the heat resilience playbook update.

For more information on the playbook, you may visit sa.gov slash DRS and access the heat playbook story map, the report, presentation, and action tracker.

I would like now to transition to describe the heat risk communication plan for this summer of 2026.

First, we have a centralized hub for heat information and resources at sa.gov/slash hot weather.

In this page, you can get tips on staying cool and hydrated as well as other important resources.

You can find places to stay cool, including information on splash pads, pools, centers, and their hours of operation.

Throughout the summer, the communications and engagement department will distribute press releases ahead of extreme weather events.

We will be sharing social media content on safety tips and provide city council with a toolkit for resources to share with constituents.

We will be also working with the Office of Emergency Management to monitor weather conditions and align with departments for targeted outreach.

Places to stay cool will be active.

These are facilities that are open during regular business hours and open to the public public for respite from the heat.

Pets are welcome in many of the locations, but we do encourage for individuals to call ahead and check to ensure that kennels are available.

This information can be found in the dynamic website, which helps residents navigate to those places as seen on the image in this slide.

And this can be found as well in SA.gov slash hot weather.

City resilience hubs are in place as well and ready to be activated.

These facilities are equipped with backup generators, have the capacity to serve as shelters if activated.

These are normal community and senior center, Northeast Senior Center, South Side Lyons Senior Center, Garza Community Center, Copernicus Community Center, and Miller's Pond Community Center.

So I would like to emphasize two locations to access information again.

These are the consolidate consolidated alerts page where emergency alerts are published at SA.gov slash alerts, and again the hot weather page for additional tools, resources, and tips for information on navigating extreme heat.

And with that, I would like to thank the chair and members for the opportunity to present this work in detail, especially recognizing that yesterday, April 22nd was Earth Day.

With me today, there are several partners, departments who are happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Thank you.

Well, thank you so much, Laura, and thank you for the presentation, all the work that you and Doug do and the entire team of the Office of Resonance Sustainability do every day to make sure that we're focusing on addressing the needs in our community-related sustainability and the environment and our changing climate.

I won't steal Council Alder Gavito's line that she's gonna use, I'm sure.

So I will hold off on it.

Yes, very happy Earth Day and Happy Arbor Day tomorrow.

Um Griffith has a presentation in this week.

Um really quickly, I want to uh read uh a snippet of Council Brickastillo's letter.

She said she couldn't be here today, but she did want to make sure that she gives some input on this particular item uh given that uh she helped author the CCR for the tracking and preventing heat deaths.

Um she wants to say the pulse approach presented falls in line with ensuring all city departments adjust to meet the needs of the changing climate and stateable practices, and she is in full support of the direction staff is detailed.

The information campaign is vital for our constituents to understand the signs and symptoms of heat injury and learn that it is okay to take precautions and to avoid them elevating to heat stroke, which of course could be deadly.

Um she also goes on to say that she would like to see the cool neighborhood uh program continued and make sure that we're looking at ways uh to make it broader and looking at not only extreme heat but also extreme cold weather and how those relate to uh how we can track those fatalities as well and see how that can shape our programming here.

Uh of course, the impact of extreme heat, extreme weather overall, impacts are most vulnerable are in house community and our uh poorly housed as well, who cannot afford to uh or do not qualify for home rehab, including centralized AC and heating.

And so overall, uh including a plan of integration of weatherization and construction uh for rehab practices for our own city facilities, weatherization our home rehab practices through NHSD's programming, um, as well as our own uh internal city programming uh would be great to help adjust uh and address the the growing needs of our our buildings themselves to make sure that they're more secure um and better weatherized.

And thank you so much for the diligent work and looks forward to seeing this initiative grow.

Great.

Who anyone want to start?

Council Alderta Gavito.

Thank you, Chair, and thank you, Laura.

Yes, what I like to say, and I'm going to convince my colleague, Councilman Mark White on, is that every day is Earth Day.

He will he will say it one day, and we'll record it on video.

Um yeah, maybe today.

Maybe right now.

I'm kidding.

Thank you, Laura, for that really good uh presentation.

Just a uh couple of quick clarifying um questions, but before that, I do want to thank um our colleagues, Councilwoman Terry Castillo and Councilman McKee Rodriguez for for the uh spearheading this effort with the CCR and and really for their for both of them for championing this effort.

Uh on slide 12.

I know you mentioned uh that there's outreach to the unhoused community.

How are we partnering with DHS on that?

Or are we partnering with DHS on that?

Yes.

Okay.

Um so in terms of outreach, several departments are connecting a special professional outreach.

Um, I just want to make sure Mark Carmona is here.

Okay.

Okay.

Um specifically for for how we coordinate with the uh the HSSD department.

Um, every time there is an activation for extreme heat weather, they do have their um representatives that uh conduct outreach to encampments um as well as conducting um additional communications through uh text messages as well as a community connections hotline resources in terms of water distribution sites where places to stay cool, places to stay cool can be active, are activated can be shared with them, as well as um uh coordination with partners that provide additional services to the in-house in terms of sheltering and overnight stays as well.

So that coordination is ongoing.

One of the I one of the objectives that uh we want to make sure we conduct with this uh this action is that we're ensuring that the same information that HSSD is sharing specifically with the unhoused, is also available to other departments so that as they encounter residents that are needing these services that can be shared as well.

Okay, perfect.

So it sounds like yellow locked step.

Awesome.

Um slide 15.

You know, I know that there are a lot of neighborhoods inside loop 410 that are heat vulnerable.

So are we are do are we doing um concerted efforts for those neighborhoods with um the climate ready neighborhoods initiative?

Yes.

Oh, I went too far.

Here we go.

Um so specifically, uh, we're looking at the entire uh locations of Network of Places Stay Cool, which is primarily city facilities at this point.

Um through this initiative, we are working on two pilot neighborhoods.

One is um the South Sand neighborhood in district uh uh five as well and four because it does overlap, and then um one of our specific uh identified hot neighborhoods, uh, which is in district two.

Those two neighborhoods are being evaluated for the specific uh resources and locations that uh provide a place to stay cool or respite from heat, um, and understanding what city facilities are available, the hours of operation, but also identifying what partners exist in those neighborhoods to see how those facilities can be activated and be shared on a map for uh for residents as well.

Okay, yeah, and that's great.

I um I know that district seven doesn't have any, and so I I know Kyle and Latika on my team have started on some of those conversations, but we we definitely want to support you all in this initiative and and get that activation in district seven um as well, just because I know um you know it it you know, we're we're very much heat vulnerable inside inside loop 410, the especially the area of district seven inside 410.

Correct.

Um I know on slide 17 that that one of the things and and me previously serving on the via board prior to to joining council is the lack of shade structures on the bus stops.

I'm I'm I'm wondering, and and you know, maybe that this is a conversation that we need to have uh at the next transportation committee for via to give us an update on um the progress on shade structures, you know.

I mean, I know it was always a an issue with funding, right?

I mean, via is always struggling for funds, and and that was the the big thing keeping us away.

But you know, we we we have to figure out how we prioritize it because I know a lot of people won't take the bus because of a long wait time at a bus stop without a shade structure.

So I think we just need to be bullish and working with V on that.

Yes, yeah.

If I may, uh Doug Melnik is here, and uh know that he's worked hard and diligently and working with VIA to have some of those discussions.

Maybe he can give us a little insight before you head.

Thank you, thank you, David.

Um yeah, we've been working very closely with VF for the past couple years.

Um they have uh pretty clear guidelines as far as where um what stops merit a uh shelter and um what we're working on right now with them is again focusing on our priority um very heat vulnerable areas is to determine are there um ways to better design shelters to have them provide more uh heat relief.

Uh you know, a standard shelter probably only provide shade for a little bit during the day because the sun moves, and so we're trying to figure out are there other alternatives?

Um, and hopefully we can come up with some prototypes to start deploying later this year to show this is how you can do it.

I think one of VA's biggest challenges are site constraints.

There's because we did a we spent a lot of time working with them on uh really focusing on these neighborhoods, and sometimes there just isn't room, yet people are still standing out in the sun and the extreme heat.

So I think there's still work that needs to be done to figure out how do we do that.

And then the other thing we're continuing to work on with them on our cool neighborhood program is it's not just providing shade at the location, but people need to get there and making sure those roots are shaded and cool.

So it's gonna be an ongoing.

Yeah, and and one of the things, and and you reminded me uh while I was serving on the VA board, and and I think it's just as relevant today, especially with the next topic I'm gonna talk about is trees is having natural shade structures, like let's put instead of spending all this money on metal um to keep people from the heat, just planting some big trees or relocating some big trees next to our via bus stops.

And that's part part of the process that we're going through is again it's not just the shelter, it's how do we start incorporating trees, green infrastructure, creating a cooler environment.

The shelter's great, but it's it's to your point, it's a bigger systemic issue we need to do with.

Yeah, yeah, and it would it would be good, you know, for for perhaps you and VIA to um come talk to us about the plans and and we can see how um how we're doing on that.

Um but last but not least on slide 19, you know on how we can increase and protect our tree canopy.

Uh, you know, I'm I'm definitely supportive of any actions that we can do.

I I know one obviously Homer, you know, I know we're planting um a big amount of trees at Woodlawn Lake 450 plus, and we've done the first 30, and every single day, probably well, not every single day.

I would say two or three times a week I'm getting asked by neighbors when are the next rounds of trees coming, you know, that that neighborhood is one of those trees for a long time, and so um we're excited to see that progress.

Uh one of the other things that we were talking about, because y'all are talking about tree planting and right-of-ways, was um was planting the trees on Culebra.

We uh we know that trees are also traffic calming, you know, and so uh or low lower the speed limit.

And so uh we just need to figure out how we're working with our transportation department so that way we're um using trees not only um to uh reverse all the heat island effect that we're feeling but also calm traffic because all of us constantly complain about speeders, you know, and our residents constantly complain about speeders.

Um those are all my comments, I think.

Thank you.

Thanks a lot, councilman.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Uh I don't know if Kat or if anyone probably works to talk a bit about the public works and like street design overlap there with tree planting.

If not, we can also come back around to it.

Thank you, Councilman Reinhardt with Public Works.

So, yes, trees are a form of traffic calming.

Uh, we work in close partnership with the transportation department on that uh and look for opportunities to to plant where we can.

Uh some of the things we look at just holistically are uh chokers or chicanes that provide areas where we can then plant as well.

So that's part of what we can look at.

Uh there's uh CCR out there about the traffic calming program, and we're starting to update the program working with transportation department uh and eventually we'll bring that back through the transportation committee.

Thank you, Eric.

Oh Mark Justin.

Good morning, everybody, Homer State Parks Director.

Just want to augment that a little bit.

Uh and so relative to collaboration with transportation department, capitality public works, that's been happening since really the 22 bond was passed.

Give you a couple of examples.

And I'm just you know, looking off of what our current year spend plan is when we presented the budget back in the summer, uh, we have four 400 um trees going in aligned with street projects.

And I do want to highlight very specifically, and I know councilman, we've had an opportunity to brief you on that connector along old uh historic highway 90 to what will be Gomez Park multi-use uh shared path that is set back from the roadway.

And from the very beginning, we've been working with um Kat and her team and now Mike Shannon and Rosie before him to make sure that trees are coordinated with the design so it's not done after the fact because then that's the best opportunity for trees to survive.

Uh we have other very similar projects, and I think collabor is a great opportunity presents or that presents a great opportunity to continue that work, but we've got some examples already in the works, and so we're excited to continue to collaborate in that spirit.

Yes, go ahead, councilman.

Yeah, and if oh, and if I may, uh yes, I know that we have uh, and thank you, Homer and Art for um letting us know how we're incorporating it.

And 400 trees sounds awesome.

You know, I I would just want us to get extremely bullish and see how we can do 800 trees, you know, and and and really have this just part of our um processes, you know, and and just like breathing.

Let's add trees.

Thank you.

Thank you, councilman.

Council Waite.

So to set the record straight, um, I love the earth.

And um and and happy that um happy that uh everybody wants to protect it, so that's excellent.

Um just a few uh a few questions on slide four, the heat-related dashboard.

Um, are we tracking whether these illnesses are concentrated in specific zip codes, job sites, neighborhoods?

Here we go.

Um so within the heat related dashboard, there is a way to visualize data in terms of how much uh how many are coming by month.

Um it is difficult based on how many are per zip code to be able to demonstrate them due to the suppression uh data requirements by the state, so that it if it is less than 10, we can't necessarily assign them to a specific um zip code for confidentiality.

Um I do want to let Claude expand on that.

Thank you.

Yeah, and just just to go to go to go along with that.

My next question is it was sort of in the same vein.

If we're capturing where the people actually are when they when they become ill, not just where they live.

Yes, uh Dr.

Jacob representing Metro Health, thank you for the question.

Just know that the cases are assigned to residents and not the actual place where the incident was reported.

So it's the right question, but just know that the way that this is assigned, it's based on the actual address of the resident.

Um so we are applying other methods to see how we can do a better job, at least understanding what's happening in that particular neighborhood, but just know specifically to what we're tracking and what's reported to us.

The data are from emergency departments, it's a standardized method to track the impact of heat having on our residents.

And uh just know that um what we will be reporting out because we've been asked in terms of provisional data of the death um the fatalities that have been reported and confirmed by the medical examiner as well as the state.

But the core question is that yes, this is based on residence and not occupation, not um activity.

So we I guess then we can track it based on zip code.

Yes.

Um but in terms of where the illness actually occurs, we we don't know.

Okay.

Um I mean, I think it'd be great if we could.

Well again, we are applying the best methods.

We are conferring with other jurisdictions like our friends in Maricopa County.

Yeah, we are in active dialogue with the state and the ME's office.

Um but again to the point of this plan, it's really about making sure that for awareness that residents know what the conditions are and can modify their behaviors.

We have a robust plan working with other city departments, but just know they are assigned to zip codes and the residents.

Okay.

Um my last question, it it's I guess somewhat related to Councilwoman Aljete Govito's related to via um.

Are we looking at whether the more shaded transit stops are increasing ridership?

Yeah, I see head nodding.

So do they?

Uh councilman, that's something that um our conversations with via that there's not necessarily a correlation, but I think that that's um I think it's a an area that needs to be explored further, more surveying, but as of now, you know, they're saying people are going to stops based based upon it serving their needs to get to where they're going, and they don't really don't necessarily have the data to say if they're shade, it's gonna drive ridership.

Got it, got it.

All right.

Well, um that's it, Chair.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Councilman Messi Gonzalez.

Thank you.

Thank you for the presentation.

I thought we were gonna get through this one without a dashboard, and then I saw it again.

Uh just a few questions really to clarify um on some slider, let's see.

I think when we talk about um, you know, as we prepare for the future construction, um, that construction phase for projects, and so just wondering on the extreme heat design standards and regulations.

Um, are we talking about what specific are have we gotten into that part of what specifically we would be implementing or just thinking of like reflective roofing requirements and things like that?

So and I'll take the first part of the answer and invite uh my partners of public works if they would like to add on.

Um in terms of uh the opportunities for building standard and modifying it's different approaches.

So the first is looking um and at best practices from other cities and what can be integrated within the uh um urban development code UDC.

Uh that process is gonna be ongoing with the development services department uh within this year, and uh providing information resources to help inform that process of what can be adopted here in San Antonio.

Um, in terms of our own processes for uh the design standards for our infrastructure, um there are best practices and within our specifications and design guidance manual on uh heat uh specific related um uh interventions, including cool roofs and white grooves.

Um, and then in terms of the roads, uh, we are piloting right now the cool pavement um uh project program, which has implemented over 28 miles of of uh of cool pavement technology.

Public works is working with ETSA to evaluate evaluate the performance of that coding to understand how that not only does that help reduce extreme heat in neighborhoods where it's being implemented, but also helps expand the design life of those assets.

So those are a few examples of the different best practices that we've seen across the United States being implemented across other cities and testing it here locally to see if it makes sense.

Okay, thank you so much.

That's great.

Um did somebody from public works gonna chime in.

I I guess I will now, but uh so some of the so Laura mentioned the cool paved program, uh, but some of the other things we're looking at and already implemented is the use of warm warm mix asphalt in our projects.

Uh we've also gotten uh recommendations on smaller things like changing uh the seating we use to more native grass and some of the hydro mulching, uh, and then certainly uh looking at recycling material, you know, concrete that uh we removed from a project area or implementing other other best practices.

But as Laura mentioned, uh about 28 miles of cool pave is what we've done across the city uh over the last couple years.

Okay, and is a reflective roofing part of those discussions on anybody's side, or is that it is um cool cool roofing and cool and white roofing.

Uh, we do have certain facilities that have been built with that.

Um would you like I'd like to invite Jorge uh from building and equipment services to provide more information on our buildings?

Thank you.

Can I can I intercept just shortly?

I know our housing services department is also a part of that.

They do it in correlation with CPS Energy for some of the weatherization, but mainly for the roofing part that does fall under our housing department, just for clarity.

Every time we replace a roof, we do the maintenance and the repair of the buildings.

That's our responsibility.

We work very closely now with our partners at CDD who oversee the new construction on new facility to also to implement the cool roof and right on the specifications and the contract language for the cool roof to be installed.

We presently, every time we replace a roof or do a re major repair to a roof.

For example, we recently completed the emergency operations center with a dura last type roofing, high reflective roofing is white.

We're about to start a project over a municipal courts that is a replacement of the roof, and over the years we have done that using our defer maintenance program as part of the repairs to roof and roof replacement where we actually write the specifications in such a way that cool roof replace build-up roofing, bitomos type of roofing in order to maintain the requirement of cool of the coal roofs.

Okay, thank you.

I I would like to see if there's a way on the website on the central hub, I guess.

If we could include a link to what we're doing as a city, I mean, kind of essentially just kind of listing out what you just said, just so that you know folks know that the city themselves are we ourselves are are doing that work too, right?

Not just asking that of communities.

So I just think that would be helpful if we could add that link in to just share exactly what you just said.

Thank you.

Um related to V, I know a few of my council members' uh colleagues have had brought this up too.

I saw that Houston Metro is working on a solar-powered um fans at their bus stops.

Do you know via or have you all talked about a pilot program with them on that or anybody thinking about that here?

At this moment, um, I'm not aware we're specifically uh fans.

We what we are doing with our pilot is uh looking at the design for the specific shelters and what um interventions can be included for shade.

Um however, that's something that we can you know bring back to them for for consideration.

Okay.

Um it looks like a small pilot program in Houston with Houston Metro, so maybe something we can consider.

Um, and then you know, I think I I was thinking, I was asking uh David about our if we have a liaison for our faith-based institutions because we have so many around us in every neighborhood, right?

Uh, in every district, really.

I can there's probably 20 plus in my district alone.

Um, and just curious if we're working with I don't even know if we have a liaison, do we?

Everyone's looking around back there, like, do we have a liaison?

Um but yeah, just as far as you know, how we're we're helping those um institutions.

I think that would help for the community outreach part.

I mean, so many people go to their church for information, and so how can we plug into those churches to share more information on anything we're doing, but uh specifically this and just how we're working with them on you know building standards and also on those large storage facilities, right?

We have those uh you you know rent a storage site.

Um a lot of those are in my district, they pop up all over.

So if we're working them on that with them on um their lighting or um, you know, you drive by at night and lights are on, and you know, how to better um manage that for them.

Um at this moment, in terms of overarching resilience and sustainability, we have uh the climate ready neighborhood network.

Okay, um, it brings partners, nonprofit organizations as uh faith-based organizations, and we're now also looking at bringing in the private sector and businesses to be part of the network.

Currently, we have 18 official members that have signed up and have raised their hand to either uh provide information to uh uh their neighborhood, provide resources, whether it's water, food distribution, or even potentially be shelters or areas of respite.

Um, through this program, we are uh uh providing training in terms of what uh capacity building they need in order to be able to stand up these uh locations to properly service an area.

Um and we are looking to expand.

So if there's specific uh uh faith-based organizations, churches, temples that want to be part of it that offer uh services, we'd love to bring them on.

Um we do have one uh which is at Tempo Cristiano.

They have activated in previous winter storms, um, offered resources like blankets and food and water to the unhoused, um, and they've also even operated as a shelter.

So right now they're part of the network, and the value of that network is that it operates in you know regular day to day during non-disaster times and during uh emergency response.

Um, we are coordinating with the Office of Emergency Management so that we have an understanding of what is happening at the community level as well.

Okay, great.

Can you share that with me?

Thank you so much.

Those are all my questions.

Thank you.

Any other questions or comments on this topic?

Great.

Um, just a couple quick things.

Uh definitely interested in the way we can collaborate more with V on the shade structures.

I know there was, I think it's well, there's a whole slide on, of course, and some of the funding we put towards it with, I think RESP in sometime soon or recently.

Um of course the Shadow's Art CCR that came through as well.

Um interest to see if we can get via, and this can be something David and I work off online to come by and just kind of go through.

I know a while ago they had an MPO grant to review all their bus shelters and look at what's needed there, and I think it'd be interesting to see if we could get as a city council uh some information on the capital needs at each of the stops in our district.

I know it's very granular, but so we can also understand about how much that costs for us to try to help supplement whatever we can, wherever we can, uh whether it's through our city funds or however else we want to figure that out.

Um but just so it's a bit more concrete, right?

So not needed out in our community.

How are we addressing that need and seeing or moving the needle on some of these issues?

I think is always the biggest question or or goal.

Um similarly, I think with the uh overall, I think this the heat playbook is an incredible resource, and I really appreciate uh the Office of Resiliency and Sustainability for working on this, as well as all the departments who are here and who are not here as well, who are contributing to make sure that we're addressing these needs.

Uh we know we're a hot city.

Um so anything that we can do to help uh cool this down is helpful.

Um I think similarly to the same thing question around via um thinking about if we can get any dollar amounts related to the capital needs for whether it's our own buildings that need that kind of capital infrastructure improvements uh for weatherization and retrofitting or our parks upgrades or our street upgrades, what that could look like to again help meet that goal, and that way as a council when we're talking about bonds or we're talking about other things, we're making sure we're looking at the right appropriate number to actually do that work and not have to cut anything here and there uh for the shared goal about addressing sustainability.

Um I think those are my larger things.

Um couple last quick two or two or three things.

Um I really appreciate Councilman Alda Gavito's points uh about tree canopy as well as urban heat uh urban heat islands going with particularly within 410.

I do know on the uh the map that was created uh I think a year or so ago or released with UTSA.

Um there seems to be a growing urban heat island, of course, further out in our city, as of course development, I think spurs through in district six in particular.

I know right outside 410 as well.

Um, we're seeing a growing urban heat island around uh some of our growing industries.

And so wondering how we can look at some of those industries to help support bringing trees back on site in some form, ongoing work there.

Uh, but I think you know, this issue, of course, is highly concentrated within our inner loop, but also I think it's continuing to spread out further and further as our development because it's a spread further and further out.

So seeing what ways we can look at that.

And I think UDC will be helpful, um, but also any other interventions we can look at as well, uh, would be great.

Go ahead, David.

Yeah, no, Chair, we'll look into that and visit with VIS if we can't collaborate some of that information for you.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

And um I know I don't know, maybe it was counselor Messi Wodels talking a little bit about the private sector collaboration.

I'm wondering too with our small businesses thinking about.

I know we had the program before, and of course it all depends on what kind of money we have here at the city, but uh we had some uh I don't remember what exactly called this kind of the outdoor support structures that we did with EDD to help support kind of like if people wanted to make it a better sound barrier outside for some of the small businesses.

I'm wondering if there's any way that we could look at what the potential could be to collaborate on shade in some of that form there, where we can help support the kind of rehabbing their their storefronts or their outdoor space to help provide that shade again in connection to the pedestrianizing of some of our areas and making sure that folks are able to get through to and fro uh our parks and other places while still having quality shade.

That one's still just kind of a big or baking idea, but would be interesting to see what you can collaborate with EDD on that particular program if we're able to bring it back online with future budgets.

Yeah, in 2024, through the Reese funds, two million dollars are allocated for a community impact uh fund.

Um it uh had over a hundred projects that went to uh nonprofit organizations as well as businesses.

Uh projects did vary addressing different types of sustainability measures from energy efficiency uh to tree planting um and and green spaces.

Um, and then we are working with the economic development department right now to integrate resilience and sustainability within revitalized SA through their program.

They have um the change grant, um, and we are we will be working to help the cohort of revitalized essay identify opportunities that could be integrated within that change grant for those revitalized A corridors that were identified this year.

That's great.

I think to Council Member Messages point, right?

Looking at the kind of overall map, of course.

I think we all like to have the visualization data on a screen somewhere.

Um but I think it's helpful, right?

When we look at some of these major corridors, especially our cool neighborhoods, not only are we investing in the trees on site and the sidewalks and et cetera, but even the uh small businesses around it and going further and further out.

So we kind of see that it's I don't know if this is the plan, but branching out further and further.

Um, our investments here in uh state ability.

Anyway, uh last quick thing, I don't know if OHP is here, but uh do we have any information on the deconstruction program and how often that one's used for any of our home rehab projects or something of the sort?

I don't believe we have anyone.

No good, we can get it offline.

Okay, yeah, I don't believe we have anyone from the from uh Office of Historic.

Oh, we do, with Veronica.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Not OHP, but um the deconstruction okay.

No worries.

Okay.

Okay.

Well, thank you, Veronica, for being ready.

Can I pick on Veronica for one that was relevant to an earlier question?

The cool roof for residents.

The update on that.

Uh I know we heard from the commercial side from Jorge, but just as it relates to that.

Yes.

Um, I think you shared, David.

Um, thank you for chiming in.

Uh we do do cool roofs on all of our home rehab projects.

So whether it's just going to be now we cannot speak.

No more at all.

Okay.

Oh.

And I've been counting myself all this time.

No, I'm just saying.

We could share it in a follow-up.

Moving to item number three.

Um, update on Metro Health as a program, essay kids breathe.

Good morning.

I am Marjorie White.

I am I serve as the assistant director for the community health and safety division with Metro Health.

Today's presentation will be on our children's asthma program titled SA Kids Breathe.

Breathe is an acronym for building relationships, effective asthma, teaching in home environments.

Today's presentation will provide an overview of the state of asthma as well as our program, the impact that this program has on our community, and opportunities and next steps.

What is asthma?

Asthma is a chronic condition in which a person's airways becomes inflamed and narrow in the presence of certain triggers.

Asthma is often affected by the air people breathe.

Sorry, because it's okay.

Okay.

Asthma is often affected by the air people breathe rather in their homes, in their schools, in their workplaces, as well as outdoors every day.

Some of the triggers include pollen, pet dander, mold, cigarette smoke, vaping aerosols, traffic pollution, dust mites, rodents, just to name a few.

These triggers often result in symptoms such as shortness of breath, tightness in one's chest, wheezing, coughing, as well as fatigue.

As one of the leading chronic diseases amongst children, the leading cause of school absenteeism, as well as a significant contributor to hospitalizations and emergency department visits, asthma is definitely a public health challenge.

As per the data on this slide, approximately six million children across this country has been diagnosed with asthma.

And unfortunately, it disproportionately impacts children below the poverty level as well as African Americans, which consists of 15.7%.

To give you some background regarding SA Kids Breathe, in the 1990s, the South Texas Asthma Coalition was established to focus on improving asthma in this community through interventions, educations, as well as research.

A major milestone from this group was the creation of a universal asthma action plan, which is still being used today by both schools as well as healthcare providers to help individuals manage their asthma.

Fast forward to 2015, the Texas Department of Health and Human Services published a report that showed that Bear County's hospital discharge rates for asthma asthma was amongst the twice as high as the state rates.

In addition to during that time, there was unfortunately pediatric deaths, about three of them due to asthma in our community, which prompted the coalition to restart in January 2018.

The SA Kids Breathe program was brought to life by a very dedicated group of physicians and advocates from the community.

An asthma summit was then held in the February of 2018, where local stakeholders organized and petitioned city leaders to take action on this concern.

In September 2018, our city leaders included a budget amendment for fiscal year 19 to establish a home-based intervention for high-risk children with asthma, and the SA Kids Breathe Program was then formed.

During this time, an advisory council with approximately 80 members, with local physicians, nurses, and asthma specialists, were formed to guide and develop the program.

We are very pleased to say that this advisory council still exists and continues to meet with our program on a monthly basis.

There are five goals of this program.

Keep kids out of the hospital, keep kids in school active and playing, keep parents at work, save families and our healthcare systems money, reduce tobacco use and exposure.

All of these goals are achievable when children have well-controlled asthma.

This program consists of a staffing complement of eight and an annual budget of 827,702, which is approximately 16% of Metro Health's chronic disease sections portfolio.

Our program is no cost to any of the participants.

We receive referrals from anyone, including caregivers, healthcare providers, medical organizations, as well as family members and schools.

To be eligible for the program, we usually take children between the ages of three to 17 years old and live within Bear County.

However, on special situations, we have seen children younger than three as well as outside of our county.

We have five criteria to be enrolled into this program.

Three are clinical and two are school-based.

They include one hospitalization in the past year, two or more urgent acute or emergency visits in the past year, two or more steroid bursts in the past year, which is a treatment for acute asthma to reduce inflammations, as well as two or more unscheduled school treatments in the past week and missing 10% or more of school days in the past year.

Based on this criteria, approximately 85% of our referrals are actually because of the clinical criteria, and 15% mostly from the schools.

In fiscal year 25, our program have served 181 children, and the data for fiscal year 26 as of yesterday, we've served 116.

The program consists of our community health workers conducting three visits within the first three months of the program.

The visits mostly take place at the children's homes as well as sometimes other areas where the family may feel more comfortable, such as restaurants, et cetera, but also we do provide a virtual option.

We engage with healthcare providers as well as the school nurses to strengthen their relationship with the family to ensure that everybody is on the same page regarding the care of the child.

We also provide follow-up visits at six and 12 months.

And even beyond the 12-month mark, our team continues to engage with the clients as needed.

The program has four main components.

First being education.

We provide education to our participants and families about asthma.

We teach them how to use their asthma devices, how to maximize the effectiveness of their medications, because unfortunately, about 50 to 80% of our participants use their inhaler incorrectly, thus not getting an effective dose of the medication for their lungs.

We help them to understand their asthma medication, and we make sure they understand their asthma action plan and have a copy of it.

We assess how well the child's asthma is controlled at every visit by administering our asthma control tests, also known as ACT.

It's a five five questionnaire that measures asthma control over the past 30 years.

And we also do home assessments, looking at what are the triggers in the home that's also causing concerns with the child and their asthma.

We provide tool kits to help them reduce triggers in their homes.

Over the course of the program, we provide four different types of kits from cleaning kits, from medicine boxes, sleeping kits, whatever is needed, as well as a pest management kit to help with rodents.

And we also provide referrals to any resources that the family may need, because oftentimes our families are experiencing major challenges within their homes, and our team does a fantastic job of connecting them to a wide variety of social services, as well as serving as advocates for them when needed.

This slide shows the positive results that we are having on our participants as demonstrated by the asthma control test, also known as the ACT scores.

As a reminder, the ACT is a five-question symptom assessment that is answered by the child and parent to recall how the child's symptoms have been affected over the last four weeks.

Scores of 20 or more are considered well controlled, which is indicated by the bright green line.

Anything below that line is considered poorly controlled.

The red bar on the left shows our participants' ACT score at enrollment, which is 16.6, which is deemed poorly controlled.

The adjacent maroon bar represents the average score at home visit 2, which has an improvement of 20.2, which is considered overall well controlled.

The light blue represents the home visit score at the third visit, which is 21.4, which is still showing sustainable improvement over time.

And then the dark teal bar represents our the ACT score at the 12-month follow-up, which is 22.8, once again indicating controlled asthma and demonstrates continued improvement.

When you look at the scores from enrollment to the 12-month follow-up, there is a 37% increase in well-controlled asthma for our participants.

And we're also proudly proud to report that 89% of our graduates at the 12-month visit are well controlled.

And just to give a brief testimony, some of our participants have shared that because of their well-controlled asthma, there's been increase in attendance in school, they are now playing in sports, they're serving in the choir, they can climb up the stairs in their apartment, all because of the work of this team.

This table reflects hospitalization rates for children with asthma at a point in time in 2015 as well as 2024.

The 2015 data once again was the alarming data that triggered the community's response to say that there is a need for a program like SA Kids Breathe.

At the time, as you can see, the state's score was 8.3, and we were at 14.7, almost twice the state average.

Although in 2024, many communities, including ours, have shown a decline.

We are still considered high amongst other counties within the state of Texas.

Opportunities and next steps that we are working on.

One, we are working to expand outreach and referral strategies.

Thanks to your support, we will be given a full-time position to help us increase referrals, strengthen our current relationships, but also build new relationships as we continue to expand this program.

We will continue to work on increasing our participant retention, promote smoke-free living and multi-unit housing, as well as increase referrals to our state's YesQUIT Tobacco Cessation Program, and continue to promote our smoking ordinance through the City of San Antonio, which was recently updated to also include vaping.

We are grateful for the incredible partnerships that helps us to do this work every single day.

Many also helped to envision and create the program that we have today.

Our key partners include South Texas Asthma Coalition, UT Health San Antonio Medical School, University Health, Community First Health Plans, the Texas Department of State Health and Human Services, as well as our incredible city departments.

That includes parks and recreations, Department of Human Services, as well as neighborhood housing.

I also want to acknowledge who's here with us today, the San Antonio Council on Alcohol and Drug Awareness.

They helped to co-lead the uh breathe clear coalition with us, as well as they're a very instrumental in establishing in our city tobacco 21 policy and our recent update to our smoking ordinance.

There are also many physicians and clinics around San Antonio that also refers to our community to our program as well, as well as the AmeriCorps program and the CDC's public health associate program who have provided incredible interns to our program.

Before I conclude, I would like to share a story about one of our participants named Mary.

She was enrolled in the program as a preteen.

This testimony shows a powerful example of what can happen when children with asthma receive the right education, support, and follow-up.

During Maria's first home visit, her ACT score was 10 out of 25, which is deemed poorly controlled.

During the home assessments, multiple environmental triggers were identified, including mode throughout the apartment, pests, cigarette smoke order, and a dog in the home.

In addition, her inhaler technique was poor, limiting the effectiveness of the medication she was using.

After receiving the intervention through our program, at the end of her graduation, which was actually a two-year time frame because of different challenges and different delays.

Her last ACT score improved to 24 out of 25.

Today, Maria is more active.

She's thriving in school, singing in the choir, and excited to participate in sports.

Her story reflects measurable impact that asthma self-management education can have health outcomes, quality of life, and health care utilization.

Last but not least, I have to acknowledge the great work of everyone on our team, both past and present.

Ms.

Kara Housler, who serves as the program manager, Kathy Shields, our chronic disease administrator, Dr.

Mandy Savatek, our medical advisor, who provides ongoing guidance and support to our incredible staff, as well as Paul Klope, our respiratory therapist, and our four outstanding community health workers and our senior administrative assistant.

Thank you all for your ongoing support of this program.

This concludes my presentation, and I'll now yield to questions.

Thank you so much, Marjorie, for the presentation.

Thank you for all the folks who are here who do this work every single day to keep our kids and our families healthy.

Uh, as a chronic asthmatic, I cannot tell you how much this means to me to continue to see this work being done in our community.

And I know as things change at the federal level and state level, it's important that our city continues to invest in programs like this to ensure that we're getting to the root of the issue, which is making sure that our folks are using the medicine correctly, are able to access the medicine, are able to have a healthy and safe home.

So thank you again.

Thank you as well.

I know we have limited time today, so I want to shift into the next item and then any follow-up questions we can send over.

Is that okay with everybody?

Okay.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Marjorie.

Moving to item number four, which is the Aquifer Protection Program update, I believe.

Yes.

Council members, thank you very much.

I'm Grant Ellis, I'm the natural resources manager for the Parks and Recreation Department.

And one thing we really like to do uh when we make presentations on the aquifer uh program is to do a little show and tell.

Um, so we've got some we've got some rocks that we've collected in the field uh that we'd like to share with you to showcase what uh a little bit about the aquifer um and what it looks like when we're out there.

So the aquifer protection program has been in existence since the year 2000, but its origins date much you know back much farther than that.

The program originally began in the minds of of local stakeholders and elected officials uh in the 70s when uh people began to realize just how important the Edwards Aquifer was to the greater San Antonio area.

Uh in the 980s and 90s, there were a lot of conversations that were held.

And then in 2000, um, the first iteration of the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, known as Proposition 3 was born.

Uh it was a voter supported initiative that allowed for the collection of a 1-8 cent sales tax to be provided for the purpose of protecting land over the more sensitive parts of the aquifer.

Um as you can see from the graph there, the Edwards Aquifer uh makes up almost 50% of the city of San Antonio's drinking water.

Um there are a lot of other sources of water that now exist that did not exist 20 years ago.

Um, and so the city of San Antonio's water portfolio has expanded quite a bit over the last several years.

Um, but the Edwards Aquifer still makes up the vast majority of the drinking water for the city of San Antonio.

A little bit about the aquifer itself.

As you can see from the rocks that we've passed out, the Edwards Aquifer is a it's a karst limestone aquifer.

Uh what that really means is that it's just it's very porous, there's lots of holes.

The aquifer system allows water to recharge rapidly after a heavy rainfall.

So, with all the rains that we've received recently, um, I believe that the aquifer level, just in the four days of heavy rains that we got over the last several days, uh, the aquifer level raised or arose uh approximately 10 feet, which is pretty remarkable.

There are three primary zones of the aquifer that that that that we focus on.

Um the contributing zone, the recharge zone, and the artesian zone.

If you look at this cross section, the best way to think of the city of San Antonio is the majority of the city of San Antonio is is located in the Artesian zone.

It's sort of that lower area.

Um the recharge zone, which is a narrow strip of land that runs through the northern section of the city in Bayer County, uh, is the most sensitive part of the aquifer, and that's where the water recharges.

But when rainfall is in the hill country, uh it makes its way down through the creeks and streams in San Antonio and the surrounding areas, um, and then it recharges and then it flows down into the through the Balcones Fault Zone into the the Artesian zone, and that's where we draw our our water from the San Antonio pool.

A lot of the activity and and and and focus for the aqua the the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program is in uh Bayer, Medina, and Uvalde counties.

Those are the counties to the west of the city of San Antonio.

The reason that we focus a lot of our activity in those western counties is because of the underground water flow path.

That groundwater flow path is from west to east.

So when water recharges in Uvalde and Medina County, it flows underground to you know eastward and ends up in the San Antonio pool from which we draw our water.

This again shows that those those zones, that pink zone in the middle, the narrow pink zone in the middle that runs through the northern part of Bear County and then Medina and Uvalley County.

That is the um Edwards, that's the recharge zone.

The green section to the north is the contributing zone, and then the the blue section on the south south end is the artesian zone.

The vast majority of our efforts and uh protected lands are in the recharge zone, as you can see from the grids.

The Edwards Aquifer Protection Program is overseen by a um nine per nine nine-person city council appointed committee called the Conservation Advisory Board.

It is not like other advisory boards for city council uh that are appointed by district.

Uh rather, these are industry experts and agencies that were selected by city council when the program was first created to ensure that there is a science-based analysis and and evaluation process to uh the selection of properties that are included in the program.

Um other agencies that are represented on the conservation advisory board are Texas Parks and Wildlife, San Antonio Water System, San Antonio River Authority.

We've got the Parks Director who's uh has a standing position on the on the on the on the uh conservation advisory board.

We also have representatives from Medina and Uvalde County to ensure that the voice there is a voice represented on the conservation advisory board for the counties that we're working out in the west.

Over the years, as I you know, as I mentioned, the the program when it was started in 2000, it was known as Proposition 3.

That was a voter supported sales tax initiative that collected up to 45 million dollars for the purposes of protecting land in exclusively Bayer County.

At the time that that program expired around 2005, there was a slight change in state law that allowed municipalities to then pursue conservation initiatives through the acquisition of conservation easements outside of their county, outside of their city limits.

And so Proposition One was then voted on and passed by voters in two in 2005, which allowed the City of San Antonio to move outside of San Antonio City limits into Medina and Uvalde counties.

That program was funded at 90 million dollars, as was its successor, uh Prop One and in 2010 and 2015.

And in 2020, there was a redirection of funds for the sales tax, and city council then decided to approve funding for the Edwards Officer Protection Program through the San Antonio Municipal Facilities Corporation Fund at an amount of uh 100 million dollars over 10 years.

There are two ways that we acquire properties.

Uh the by far the most common is the acquisition of conservation easements.

Um over 95% of our property interests and and use of funds have been spent toward the acquisition of conservation easements.

Um the other is through just the the acquisition of feasible properties.

And in some instances, we have purchased land using the aquifer protection funds.

Those properties have some of those properties have become city parks on the north side of the city.

Uh some of them have become incorporated into Government Canyon State Natural Area.

Um the vast majority of our efforts are through conservation easements.

And it's important to point out that the Edwards Okford Protection Program is a voluntary program, right?

We're working with private landowners in several counties that impact the the city of San Antonio's flow or pool of water.

Um to make this a success, we've we we work you know with willing property owners who are interested in in negotiating the sale of a conservation easement on their property.

Again, conservation easements are uh the acquisition of uh property rights on those properties.

Basically, what we're doing is we're purchasing future development rights on these properties.

Uh we're working with with landowners.

Most of them are ranchers or farmers out in Medina and Uvalde County.

Uh, we're purchasing future development rights, but it doesn't, but what what that allows them to do is to continue to operate their properties in a consistent manner with what they've always done, uh, but they are giving up future development rights in exchange for funds.

The acquisition of our conservation easements uh can take anywhere from nine months to a year.

Um then once the conservation easement has been purchased by the city of San Antonio, uh these are legally binding agreements between the city and these landowners that run in perpetuity.

So they run with the land.

Uh the landowner may transfer or may sell the property or may pass the the property on to their heirs and and these restrictions to the property run with the property.

Program accomplishments to date.

Um we have protected uh in total uh 188,900 acres.

Um, like I said, the vast majority of those have been in through conservation easements with almost about 8,000 acres in fee simple acquisitions.

This is the acquisition of acreage by county.

Obviously, Medina and Uvalde County have received a lot of the attention.

Uh Bayer County uh is you know a distant third, but we focus a lot of our efforts in Bayer County.

It's it's just that there's var far less land over the recharge zone that has not yet been developed or already protected in Bayer County.

The way we identify properties is is science-based first and foremost.

Um the the we have a scientific evaluation team that convenes approximately every five years.

They look at the ranking material that we use to identify and rank properties.

What they do is they help us identify work with landowners and then guide them through the process from start to finish.

This is that step-by-step process that I just mentioned.

We take these properties to the conservation advisory board.

We have a series of stage one and stage two due diligence that include geologic assessments, environmental uh you know, data uh reports, um, and and and phase one side assessments.

Umce we complete all of the due diligence, we bring those properties to city council for final review and approval.

In 2015, there were there were 10 million dollars that was set aside um of the 100 million dollars total that was uh uh approved by council for um the sales tax um to be used for water quality projects.

Um there were 11 water quality projects that were approved.

Uh we worked with the San Antonio River Authority to oversee the um the uh the selection and and and administration of those projects.

Um we are all of those projects have been completed with the exception of one.

We are still waiting on a final report from one project, um, which we expect uh within the next month or two, um, at which point in time um you know we'll be uh circling back with city council to determine the best way to present that information.

But all of that information is currently available on that website, um, including uh finalized reports, project summaries, uh, all the data that was collected for those water quality projects.

Uh leveraging funds is obviously another uh very critical component when it comes to the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program.

To date, we have leveraged over 34 million dollars with the assistance of um you know various partners at the federal, state, and local levels.

Uh the San Antonio Development Services Department through their San their uh Southern Edwards Plateau Habitat Conservation Plan has been a a local a critical local partner more recently.

And then I just wanted to end uh by talking about the program and the fact that it has been so um it has been internationally and nationally recognized.

This is a this is a program that has uh received lots of uh of uh of acclaim.

Um and this photo was taken underground at the Woot Cavern Um on the Seiko Valley Ranch, which was a property that we protect we we acquired a conservation easement on back in 2024.

Um as you can see, uh this is a massive cave system underneath the ground at the at that property.

There is a small light sort of down in the near the right hand corner.

Um that is a that is a spielunker.

That is somebody who is actually descending down into the cave on a rope just to give you a sense of scale.

Um this photo I love for for many different reasons, but it shows you know, while we are focused uh on the um ground uh and and working with the the property owners, you know, most of what we see uh is is above the surface.

Uh but this showcases exactly why it's so important to have the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program and what we're working to protect because these subterranean caverns and systems allow the water that we are uh working to protect you know to continue to flow both you know in a water capacity or water quality and water quantity uh capacity.

Um I would be remiss if I didn't call out the the staff that works on this.

This is a small team.

Uh Philip Covington and Susan Courage are here today.

David Bernal uh is not with us today, but it's a it's a three-person team, um, and they do an amazing amount of work uh for the limited resources that they have and and um I just would like to commend them for all their hard work.

So happy to answer questions.

Thank you so much.

Well, thank you so much for the presentation.

I really appreciate the level of detail getting into it about how we protect our water.

Of course, I think we talked uh pretty frequently on the council about how the importance of our water system is to our community.

Of course, we all know the aerodographer is important to our entire city in the larger area.

And so anyways that we continue to support that and keep and maintain it, I think it's critical to many of us here.

Um are there any questions or comments for presentation or this item?

Council Roy.

Yeah, I'll just briefly say thank you.

Um thank you for that presentation and for the work.

I uh I want to express my strong support um for the program and the work that um it's being done to protect the off the aquifer.

I mean it's critically important that the city remains vigilant and and proactive and um in securing the land.

Uh Edwards Aquifer as we all know is sort of a uh lifeline for San Antonio, and and there's so many acres of the program that's been protected for uh for a number of years.

It's really a um a generational uh investment in the health and safety, really, of our of our uh community.

So I'm fully supportive and um you know want to continue to have have y'all's uh back if you will in everything you're doing in that regard.

Thanks, Chair.

Thank you, Councilmember Messi Gonzalez.

Thank you.

Um, just really quick, I want to highlight the work that y'all are doing.

Thank you so much uh for these efforts.

And uh this is another reason I think uh what makes San Antonio so unique is we're one of those first cities that um invested in in protecting our our water resource uh like this, and so resources really.

Um so just a couple of questions on um, you know, I know this that hundred million is over ten years, and so have we started any conversations on what that looks like.

I think we're five years into that ten years, right?

Are we five?

We we're actually not so so the well council approved the San Antonio Municipal Facilities Corporation funding source in 2020.

It didn't kick in until 2022, so we're actually three years into it right now.

Okay, perfect.

Okay, so I guess at our halfway point, we're gonna start talking about how we um keep it going or being creative around uh what that looks like.

Um and I think my last question was and and you're you just to clarify again, you said that um we're focused in our efforts on properties located within Bear County.

We always look at Bayer County, right?

And so I know that there is always a lot of discussion um with when it comes to Bear County.

There's a th there's a f a few factors to consider.

Obviously, property values in Bear County are much higher than they are in the western counties, and so historically we have been able to get more bang for the programs buck, if you will, by by by protecting you know larger open space in Medina and Uvalde County.

That said, we always look at properties in in Bayer County because we know that they're fewer and farther between.

Right.

Um, and so there is always a focus on the part of the staff to to evaluate very critically the properties the remaining open space properties in Bear County.

Got it.

Okay, uh, those are all my questions.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Um only last question I was gonna ask really quick um was do we have a map of I think it's related to Councilman Ms.

Montal's point about the kind of progress and the work ongoing, but do we have a map of um projects or acquisitions done through this program or the kind of previous iterations um as well as the kind of credits and exceptions provided um in the area?

Of course, the map's generally gonna be over the aquifer, but overall seeing where we've acquired, what parts we've acquired, and uh what that timeline's been.

So well, and so oh hello.

Yeah, and I mean this this and and maybe this answers your question, Councilman.

This particular map shows you know Bayer, Medina, and Uvalde counties.

And and so the the yellow parcels that you see um the yellow polygons throughout, mostly uh located on the um on the um the recharge zone are all the properties that we purchased under proposition one.

Um the green parcels, which are all primarily located in sort of northwestern Bayer County, were acquired through the proposition three, that first 45 million dollars.

Um that and then and then the red parcels uh that are many of which are adjacent to or contiguous with the yellow parcels um are the properties that we have protected through the municipal San Antonio Municipal Facilities Corporation funding.

Got it.

Thank you so much.

Sure.

I think those are all the questions for this item.

Thank you so much again for the presentation.

Thank you for the rock that out to my collection and will not put on my wrist.

Um appreciate the conversation today.

And at 11 58 a.m.

we will officially adjourn the community health committees meeting.