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San Antonio is a fast growing, fast moving city with something new happening every day.

That's why each week we go on the record with Randy Beamer and the newsmakers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the reporters roundtable to talk about the latest news stories with the journalist.

Behind those stories.

Join us now.

As we go on the record with Randy Beamer.

Hi, everybody, and thank you for joining us.

I'm Randy Beamer, and this week we are starting with San Antonio's new mayor, Gina Ortiz Jones.

Thank you very much for joining us.

A lot to talk about.

What's been in the news this week.

We'll get to that project, Marvel and some of the other things.

But first of all, I guess you could call it a softball.

But how how are you doing?

How would you rate your performance so far?

Oh, that's a good question.

And thanks, Randy, for having me.

As I as I always share with you whenever I see you a little bit of nostalgia.

I grew up watching you, so I was real honored to share this.

Nice to throw me off with that, I appreciate it.

Grandpa, should.

I share that with you last time?

All right.

Listen.

Look, when you work hard, right when you leave it all in the field, it doesn't really matter what the grade is.

I'll be honest with you.

It's that you've done your best.

And I certainly feel that at the end of each day, And the true measure of how much I am enjoying it, and I always tell young folks, you know, get you a job where you beat your alarm every morning, so excited to get to work.

And that's that.

That certainly was the case at the Pentagon.

And it's the case now.

So very excited.

How different is it from the campaign mode though?

I mean, you know, that was a lot of, I don't want to say attacks, but it was tough.

It was personal.

You can say attacks, right?

Okay.

We can say that.

But that was on one level.

And now, first days in office, the media, you're getting different kinds of criticism, some from your colleagues.

How is that to take.

Randy, at the end of the day, I'm focused on the people of San Antonio and making sure we get things done.

We have a lot on our plate.

I'm very thankful.

I mean, I was just, again reminded that we still have San Antonio firefighters that are helping with the recovery efforts in Kern County.

I actually yesterday I called for a special meeting, for this Friday at 1 p.m., for my council colleagues as well as the public to receive an update on the Spurs arena discussion.

We're due for an update there.

We are also dealing with, as you know, a very significant budget gap, right?

Yes.

And as as has been reported in the media, folks talk a lot about 27, that being about 140 million.

I think it's really important though.

And I do this having been at the Pentagon, which, you know, you need to look a little bit further out.

And if you look further out at the five year budget forecast, the gap if we don't do anything is $220 million in 2030, I.

Bet is not.

So.

Or is it considering federal cuts that may also affect the budget?

Or do you want to have to fill gaps?

Well, so the gap is because we take in $1 and spend 3.5.

And so, you know, part of this has to do with at least what we've seen.

Right?

The, the not decrease but the flattening, the sales tax, property tax, etc..

So money is no longer there.

Some of those things.

Right.

But to your point, it is important that we are considering how changes in the budget may be and the effects of those we need to address.

We need to think of that in the context of, yes, some of the federal challenges.

As we look at cuts to Medicare, cuts to Medicaid, Snap, etc., what's happening in the VA system, all of those things compound some of the challenges that our neighbors may face.

So, when you ask, you know, about this other kind of stuff, I'm more focused on mission, right?

And making sure that our community is cared for.

I know we'll get to it, but obviously in our community, military city, USA, we also have to make sure that we are doing everything we can to support our military families.

We have today, you know, support the missions that we've got and then work with the Department of Defense and each of the services to to lay out some of the other opportunities that we have here.

And that's one of the other things have been on the news.

You've been to Washington, talk to people, the Pentagon, and the possible contingency plan, at least right now that's been talked about, is moving the before, Fort Sam's, U.S. Army south and north, combine them with Army Forces Command at Fort Bragg and move people out of San Antonio.

At least some people out of San Antonio.

You also, though, have proposed other positions in the Army to come to San Antonio.

What did you get out of the meeting?

At the Pentagon meetings at the Pentagon?

And where do you think we are in that?

Well, I think and I shared this with my team, we as a community, and I certainly as a leader, I will be this proactive, prepared and pragmatic.

Right.

And so we can't just go up there and say, hey, we need to, you know, we need this.

And, you know, we've got to also lay out some other things because, you know, the Secretary of Defense has has laid out kind of clearly the direction that that he wants to go.

And so how can we though maybe operate on that and expound and highlight some things that, hey, maybe, you know, also in the interest of efficiencies are the opportunity and we've got the bandwidth to do it, host some other missions that are not only, you know, frankly, good for the service, good for the department, but good for Santa.

And specifically, you mentioned medical jobs and contracting jobs.

That's right.

Yeah.

And what I, I mean, you know, I've the benefit of having served at the Pentagon and having a network that can still help, you know, with some relatively, current information about where there are some challenges and some room for, to absorb those missions.

So, yeah, I called up a buddy of mine and said, hey, what do you recommend?

Right?

Who's very familiar with, with where?

There where there may be some, some opportunity to absorb some folks based on what we have here.

I would think it's also important, though, you know, we're thinking about military to the USA 2045, 2050.

And we're not thinking just about the military missions, Randy.

But I think it's also really important that we are talking about the defense, ecosystem that we have here.

Right?

I think when you think about those defense, medical, related, jobs, you know, we need to be thinking about that, and helping folks understand, hey, the merger between UTSA and UT Health Science Center, that's an opportunity, right?

Additional research, etc.. We also need to be thinking about our contribution to the defense industrial base.

San Antonio is the 21st largest manufacturing exporting region in the country.

I would argue if you can make a tundra, we can probably figure out how we make the electrical, vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, how we make the uncrewed, aerial vehicles.

Right.

We can do that here.

I think it's going to require leadership and focus.

And this is actually aligned with the conversation that I had with the governor last week, when he was pretty pointed in his feedback and said, look, San Antonio needs to up its game when it comes to economic development.

I mean, I heard you talk about that with compared to Dallas and compared to Houston, and you talk to the governor about that.

Yeah.

Was he receptive?

And what do you want to do.

What's his feedback to me?

In terms of San Antonio needs to up its game.

And, you know, you take the feedback.

And we recognize where we have some opportunities.

And I think, as I mentioned, we're very unique in the in the defense industrial base contributions we could make.

Those aren't going to just happen, though.

I think we're going to have to be thoughtful with the entire ecosystem that is that we have here, you know, from the on the education side, on the, on the commercial side, and certainly with all the stakeholders and the.

Did you talk to the governor about his veto of, I guess it was $50 million for.

Yeah.

At Port San Antonio for the I'm not sure what the official title of that was, but it was part of the cybersecurity, group that our team that we would like to have here.

Yeah.

Did you say, hey.

Well, you could spend that $50 million here, or is he, I don't know how long conversation you had.

Yeah, there was a, We did discuss it.

I'm not going to go into the specifics as we as a as a kind of local community, figure out what our way ahead is there.

I think there was a strong appreciation for the cyber talent in our community.

And certainly he sees that having, put cyber command and the state command here in San Antonio and naming that.

So I think, it's really important that our communities speak with one voice, one speak with one voice as we lay out these opportunities and make sure we're not stepping on each other's toes.

And what about the response from the Defense Department?

Now, you didn't speak with, Pete Hegseth himself?

Not, but some of the team that will be implementing this.

Did you get the idea that, yes, those South U.S. Army, south and north jobs will go away?

That there's really nothing we can do about that, but we could get other jobs.

What?

What kind of a pull do you think we have here to get those other jobs in our, you know, can we go ahead and write off some of those jobs here?

Well, I think, so I was very thankful, for the members of our federal delegation that I was able to to, to meet with in particular, very thankful that Representative Quaker actually brought in, the military leads, the operational planning team is what they're called.

And these are the folks that are no kidding, took the task and said, from from the secretary of the Army are now providing options, right.

And what they were clear about is that, in, in, in kind of when this all shakes out, the impact to San Antonio may be negligible, right?

They essentially said point 5% of your uniform population is what you may lose.

And so when you think about it in that context, right, I think it's important that we, you know, understand what they are trying to do.

And then as they shed light on what the impact could be, they were also very clear to say, hey, no decisions have been made yet.

Because when you say no decisions have been made, I don't remember what was a 95 when we kind of were surprised by Kelly, at Brac going away.

Do you see anything like that on the horizon here?

That there.

Oh, that could be Randolph or.

Well, that could be some missions that.

That was in.

I mean, that is not in any way what I took away from our conversations.

Again, we were speaking speaking with the leads.

They had a very specific task, you know, based on the memo, the secretary heads have put out about Army North, Army South and Forces Command.

And that was a very, very narrow task, which I think is, you know, why it was really important that we respond.

And I, in that meeting, shared, I understand your task.

Thank you for sharing kind of the timeline.

We've got more clarity on that, by the way, though, in this overall conversation that the Department of Defense is having about efficiencies and where we can do things better, here's a list six things that maybe you all might want to consider.

And again, San Antonio is ripe for it, given what we do now.

But the some of the things that we are also looking to, to support.

Do you think your time as undersecretary of the Air Force will help you and that that you know, people that who may or may not still be there, that you can work with to use that influence?

Do you?

Absolutely.

I mean, that's exactly how I came up with the list.

Not only that, but I think as importantly, Randy is is understanding how these things work.

Right.

Understanding the timelines.

And certainly, you know, the reason I brought us initially started the conversation with, hey, let's look at that budget, not just two years, but what is that five year outlook?

Right.

And, certainly the city staff prepared that.

But I was surprised at how some of the attention has just been on, between now and 27.

I know we got to look at 28 to understand how we can help ourselves now.

Using, we obviously have a military background, some military jargon.

You have maybe military discipline.

Discipline.

Okay.

And speaking of that, that's been in the news this week that some of the council members are not happy with the memo you put out about the CCR, basically a council consideration request that you want them to go through not only the city manager, but the city attorney, and five signatures instead of three.

And they're chafing at that because they just got a change last year that they were trying to make more cars quicker.

What do you tell them?

And what about your military experience is going to change how you deal with.

Yeah.

The mayor or the mayor's office.

Yeah.

Well in my military experience, Air Force core value first, core value is integrity first.

And when I.

So it's how some of these things were I recognize the need to put a little bit more structure in them is based on what I had seen.

So for example, there was a councilwoman who submitted a, CCR and the first line of that is that I have notified the city manager about this, and I asked the city manager, hey, have you seen this or have you notified?

And he said no.

And so, you know, when you unfortunately, there has already been a, a public, a press release issued out about it.

So not only now do we have an untrue statement on its face, but now we have there is an untr And I am not comfortable with misinformation like that.

So we actually had to then issue a press release rescinding that the idea itself.

Right.

Expanding transportation for for seniors, to get to senior centers makes a lot of sense.

But when you say I have done something and you, in fact, have not, then, you know, asking Eric just to sign that little thing on there, I think makes a lot of sense.

So I think so this and that because some of these changes are important.

Right.

So now we all can have confidence that the thing that you have said is in fact true, because unfortunately, we had to guess that previously did that.

You know, getting along with council members first.

Is it is it tougher because they then sent a letter to you saying they want changes?

I mean, you've been described as wanting things more formal.

I think it was punctual.

And we all want that ran.

Well, no.

Actual.

No.

Hey, you won't, you know, and I think I think as a proud public servant, and, yes, I am a product of a very disciplined environment.

When a meeting for the public, this is supposed to start at a certain time.

It should start at a certain time, right?

These are at these times are not a surprise.

Well, what about having me, having some of the council members stay seated while you're reading things?

There was some decorum.

Yeah.

I mean, I will say, you know, that's just kind of basic decorum, you know, one of the other things, I think is a actually a very important, piece here.

And, and I will, you know, say, again, as I have shared with my colleagues that the city, attorney, has reviewed all of those modifications, some of them.

Would give him more power.

So one might.

Actually wouldn't give him more power.

It would not.

That is a that is, Running everything by.

Him.

So to be very clear, the city attorney, what that would do, that step you actually would do in a little bit later the, the check of, hey, is this illegal?

Why on God's green earth would we if something that the attorney could say, hey, this is illegal.

This is not something you want to put through your process.

Why would we not take steps to have that awareness, that situational awareness as early as possible to minimize the risk to the city?

I think the argument is that, well, there are other attorneys who might disagree with him and that you should bring it up and, and then the.

Understand.

But we have a city attorney and that is their job.

And, you know, the city being their client.

And so other attorneys may have other clients.

We have an attorney who who represents the city.

So if the city attorney has some reservations, and I think that's really important, Randy, I think we would all recognize that we're in a very, different judicial environment than we were even just a couple of months ago.

So as best as we can protect ourselves, we should do that.

Moving on to Project Marble.

We've had a lot of listening meetings.

And then this Friday is going to be a meeting, as I understand it, about presenting.

Although you want more input from people.

What?

Where are we in?

You've had a lot of questions already.

Getting them answers before you decide whether to put them on the ballot.

Yeah.

So I called.

This or I guess it wouldn't be Project Marble would be the.

Spurs.

Yeah, yeah.

So just to clarify what you said, the meeting that I have called for this Friday is specific to the Spurs arena discussion.

And what this does is just kind of level set with folks on on where things stand, what information we have, what information we don't have, the things we can expect, as well as, what the pathway looks for, looks like forward.

Not only is this again a public update for my council colleagues, but it's also for members of the public.

Right.

Just letting everybody know kind of where things stand.

So it'll be a good discussion.

How much are the Spurs?

Is Peter John Holt going to be there?

Do you expect them to have answers in terms of how much they might spend?

Because that's been a big question.

You know, if they're asking for public dollars, how much are they going to put in?

Are they what do we know in terms of the answers to those questions people have been asking?

Yeah, we don't have an answer to that yet.

And where are you on how much do you need to see from the Spurs, and how much would you like to see the community benefit?

Because community benefits agreement.

Yes.

I mean, as important as you know, how do we pay for it is how does how does the community benefit?

I've been very clear on those two points.

Because again, this is a generational investment, a generational investment.

So we have to use this and think about the ROI on that return on investment to help address our generational inequities.

This is we've got, you know, one shot to get this right.

And I certainly, have asked, you know, questions.

And I think those answers will help make sure that we're in the best negotiating position as as possible.

But you're also a big Spurs fan, or at least the Spurs fan.

You want Dylan Harper here.

But hey.

You're talking to somebody who still has their trading cards.

David Robinson.

Sean Elliott.

Randy, stop!

Come on, man, come on.

Okay, so yeah, now people might also wonder, okay, how how important do you think the Spurs are to the community?

And how realistic is it to think that another city, given Austin investors and such?

Yeah.

Would land the Spurs and we wouldn't have it if there is no arena.

I, you know, we will each side will do what they think is in their best interest.

I think it's in our best interest to ask questions, to understand what our negotiating position can be.

And they, you know, they are a business.

At the end of the day.

I would love, of course, for our Spurs to be here for the next hundred years.

Right.

And, and I understand, you know, many of the owners are right here in San Antonio.

Some of them are not, but many of them.

Many of them are David Robinson.

Right.

Charlie Amato, McCollum's family.

Right.

We've got and of course, the whole.

So there's a lot of obviously San Antonio connections.

So I really hope that we can get to an agreement that is good for the community and keeps our spurs here in San Antonio.

And, you talked about it earlier, but the budget, where are are we likely to see cuts?

Where are we going to have to cut in this first year in a way where there's a less of a budget shortfall?

Well, so we have not had those in-depth discussions yet.

I know the staff is working very hard, to provide options that are in line with the guidance that we provided at that planning session.

And just a reminder that guidance says we're going to fund our no fail missions, right?

Those folks that keep us safe, they.

Have the resources.

That's a that's a military.

Well, I think people can also understand.

Yeah, those folks that keep us safe, they've got to have the resources to do that.

Fire, EMS, police.

Right.

It's a no fail mission.

We've got to make sure that we are minimizing any impacts to our most vulnerable.

Right.

We just talked about, you know, cuts of Medicare, Social Security, snap being cognizant that of how any of our changes in our budget could impact some of the services that they rely on.

And then lastly, minimizing any long term impacts, of our of any changes in the budget.

So that's the guidance that we, that we provided.

And I would argue, you know, one of the things and that you talked about the CCR stuff, and I'm sure folks are now googling CCR in a way that they never have council consideration requests.

But what I did and, and this is actually based on the feedback, from, from Councilman White and another one based on, hey, we need to be focused on core services.

And so what I asked to do in that form, that council consideration request is, hey, help us understand if this is related to a core service, right?

Do we have to do this by law, etc., etc.

because when we have less resources, we certainly want to make sure that we are covering down or being thoughtful about our investments in core services.

Right.

Lots of good ideas.

But I was you know, you saw in that in that session there's no new money.

The conversation now is, is trade offs.

And finally, how are you getting along with members after this kind of stuff.

And is that going to make things easier or tougher, or is it is it just you kind of setting down the rules and saying, hey, this is how we're going to do business different than Ron Nurnberg?

And you getting along with everybody.

That's not going to be an issue between conservatives, more progressives and yourself.

I think structure, is a nonpartisan issue.

Right.

And this this is all designed to make sure that we're best serving, the people of San Antonio and getting on with the work.

We've got real challenges ahead.

We need to be focused on serving people and not on the petty stuff.

All right, well, thank you very much for coming in and explaining all that.

A lot more we could get to and maybe down the road.

I'd love to do that.

Likewise.

Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, thank you very much for coming.

Thank you.

Sir.

On reporters roundtable, a lot of other news to talk about this week, including something coming out of the Hill Country flooding and the special session.

A couple things there.

First, we're going to talk about, hill country flooding and, and, I guess you a development there with Sanford Nowlin, who is editor in chief of the San Antonio Current.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Yeah.

Great to be here.

I assume you're talking about the, the head of the, FEMA urban Search and Rescue.

Yes.

Leaving.

He did not give a reason for his departure when he resigned, last week.

But CNN spoke to people inside FEMA and said he was, leaving because he was distraught over the 72 hour delay that FEMA had in actually being on the ground getting.

That search and rescue team there.

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

And that's because, Homeland Security head Kristi Noem, implemented a new rule that any time FEMA is going to spend more than $100,000, she has to sign off on it.

And apparently that took 72 hours for some reason.

So the guy's name is Ken Patrick.

He'd been there ten years.

And, the sources that CNN talked to said that he had been increasingly distraught by the Trump administration.

Talk about dismantling FEMA, getting rid of FEMA, phasing it out, and that this appears to have been the last straw for him that, you know, here we have this this disaster making national news.

And it's FEMA is not able to get there immediately and start.

But someone the press said it was laughable that they that they would use that as a reason for his resignation.

Yeah.

I mean, that was that was the response from a FEMA spokesperson basically saying that, you know, the rule that Noam implemented was, fiscally responsible and that, yeah, that that they didn't buy that, would leave for that reason.

Moving on to the legislature and a couple of the political things, Ken Paxton's, wife announcing her divorce and that for.

Biblical reason.

For biblical reasons.

And that changes the, the whole race for Senate with John Cornyn because some of his supporters have said, sorry, Paxton, we're not going to support you now.

Well, I mean, it certainly I think he's given another reason for people who who don't think he passed this pass, the smell test to step away.

However, you know, he's already got a lot of baggage going into this.

Right?

There was the the impeachment vote in the Texas House, the Texas Senate, over, essentially overturned that.

But, you know, there are allegations that he was, you know, engaged in bribery and abuse of office.

There were whistleblowers who were making headlines.

And there was adultery at that time.

His wife.

Yeah.

I mean, there was adultery at that point.

And, and the the, filing, the divorce filing that, Paxton's wife did in Austin again, she accused him of, adultery in the filing.

You know, there is also the issue of the, state, securities fraud case that dragged on for years and years and finally went away because he agreed to settle it for a fairly.

Do you think it's enough to pull the Republican support that he wouldn't win?

Primary against Cornyn or not?

I.

Still a hard core base of support.

Yeah.

No, I look look the the the MAGA base I don't think is going to let go of, Paxton.

He's been a tireless Trump ally.

He's dug in on all these these culture war issues and the, you know, 3% of Texans that turn out to vote in the Republican primary, I think are going to be okay with all that stuff.

I ultimately I think, where it becomes problematic for him is if he wins the nomination and then faces a more middle of the road candidate with a squeaky clean record in the general election.

Cook Political Report, which is, an esteemed watcher of, politics and races, basically moved that particular Senate seat from solidly Republican to leans Republican, based on the assumption that Paxton might end up winning the the nomination and face headwinds in the general.

Well, thank you very much, Sanford and Allen.

You are not the co-owner and founder of the current, but at least editor in chief as we speak.

Thank you so far.

Yeah.

And thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can watch it again.

Any previous shows?

Download the podcast at KLRN.org I'm Randy Beamer and we'll see you next time.

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