On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho.

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 for On the Record this Week.

I'm Randy Beamer.

We are starting with the issue of city council pay and city council term limits, how much they should get and how long they should be able to serve.

Joining us to talk about that and more is district seven City Councilwoman Marina.

I was I don't think, a veto.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thanks for having me.

First of all, how much are you paid now?

And there's a charter commission that's recommended some things.

Where are you between that?

Yeah.

So I ultimately support the Charter Commission's recommendation for a salary increase.

And the reason for that is because council pay today is pretty low.

And because of that, it really essentially shuts the door for a lot of hardworking San Antonians to ever run for council if they don't have access to prior wealth or side job or family wealth, and then they're not able to sustain a council job on this salary.

Now, it was, what, set in 2015 hasn't changed since then.

Little over $46,000.

and the charter Commission recommends.

What is it?

Close to 80,000.

But there are some people in the middle.

Yes, I believe so.

I think the charter recommendation was around 80,000. you know, my predecessor, Honore Sandoval, actually left council citing the low pay as as the biggest reason for her leaving, you know, which is a tough choice for her to make, you know, whether to support her family or do a job that she was extremely passionate about.

I do support the charter recommendations.

Proposal for a salary increase.

And the mayor now makes 61,000.

That would go away, I believe, to over 100,000. something like that.

The it was the median income of San Antonio for a family of 3 or 4 back in 2015, and it just hasn't kept up with the trend.

And some of the council members also are taking, part time jobs.

That's right.

Well, although the lawyers, of the group don't have to.

And there's a professor on the group that doesn't have to as well.

Now, with this effect.

current city council members in the future.

the charter Commission's recommendation would take effect in 2027.

And what about the terms?

What are you looking at now?

We have 2 or 2 year terms for, for for terms.

So you could serve a total of eight years.

And what would you like for that?

Yeah.

So I disagreed with the Charter Commission's proposal of making those two four year terms.

You know, and, and the reason for that is because I feel as council representatives were ultimately held accountable to residents and I think that the two year term limit holds us accountable to residents.

Right?

They can say, hey, you're doing a great job, keep going or not, and vote us out.

And so I, I definitely think that two year term limits is the way to go.

you know, they can tell us again if we're doing a great job or not.

And I think a two year cycle, warrants out, a two year cycle for how many terms for, for for for some the way it is now.

Yes.

What about, there are also, caps on what the city manager can make right now, as well as how long he can serve.

And that basically came out of, a bitter fight with other unions, fire employees Union and Cheryl Scully, the last city manager.

Where do you come down on that issue?

I, I agree with the charter Commission's proposal of removing the cap for the city manager tenure as well as the pay.

the reason for that is because, actually, we would have a higher bond rating, which would save us taxpayer dollars.

Also to San Antonio would be better, poised to attract top talent for our city manager.

And I think we deserve the best.

And Eric Walsh has been there about five years.

So this this would affect him.

what is the timeline for these proposals for the Charter Commission or for you to vote on it and then get on the ballot?

Right.

I believe that council is going to be voting on it in the next couple of months to be placed on the ballot, and then ultimately everything will be decided by the voters in November.

And what about another issue that you've been watching closely and talking about is the issue of stray dogs in San Antonio?

We've had for literally decades tried to do something last year.

The legislature didn't allow it, but there's some new recommendations, right?

So my team and I got together and looked at the issue of loose and dangerous dogs.

This issue is a public safety issue.

It impacts residents daily lives, whether they're not able to walk around their neighborhood after dinner, whether it's planning school kids routes, so not to go on a street with a dangerous dog.

It really impacts their lives.

also to Raymond Najera, the son of Mr.. And I had a who was, tragically killed off a street by those pit bulls.

I met him during the campaign, and I committed to him that I was going to do something about this.

So out of that, we came up with three policy proposals.

The first is that we need a whole hold, a negligent owners accountable.

And the way to do that is that if people keep letting their dog out again and again, we're going to be significantly increasing the fines on them.

So if X is returning your dog for the second time, we're proposing a $500 fine, which is a significant increase.

Third time on is at least a minimum of $750 fine.

Right.

And so we do have to hit people in the pocketbook to change behavior because this is a huge problem.

Again, it is a public safety issue in San Antonio.

The second policy proposal that we're pushing for is that we want animal care services to spay and neuter any dog that leaves its property.

the reason for that is because we need to curb the amount of dogs that San Antonio has.

There's an overpopulation of dogs.

This leads to the high euthanasia rate.

We weren't able to do that for a long time here because in Texas, dogs are seen as property and you cannot manipulate people's property.

But our team was able to find in the Texas Health and Safety Code, where access actually does have the authority to spay and neuter dogs.

This is a game changer for our city.

And I will add, it is not on the city's dime.

If your dog gets picked up by ax it.

It will be a cost to the owner to have that dog fixed by ax.

And last but not least, we want to protect residents when they're reporting a dangerous dog.

Currently, if they're reporting a dangerous dog that their neighbor has, they have to sign a sworn affidavit and that prevents them from doing it because now their neighbor knows who reported them.

Right?

And it it leads to potential retaliation from that neighbor.

we're protecting them under the pseudonym program so that people can anonymously report a dangerous dog.

And some of these issues, we thought they were addressed last year with the proposal that the state, our state legislators supported, and it was the only effective Bexar County.

But the state then the governor vetoed that because I guess he thought it was, it was not in line with state law.

How would this be different?

And this would be able to be passed under state law here?

Yes.

So we actually worked very closely with the city attorney's office, with municipal courts, and with animal care services so that we could implement the policy here in San Antonio right now.

Next, it's going to be going to the governance committee and then ultimately the Public Safety Committee.

And then ultimately council to get voted on here.

And you're working on budget right now, which is going to be a long summer.

Yes.

Well, thanks very much.

Appreciate you coming in.

District seven, Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito.

Thanks for having me.

Recently, the issue of safety downtown was at the top of the newscast here because of a couple of shootings.

But at the same time, there's been an audit of safety conducted by a group called Centro San Antonio that's looked at what's really the safety issues downtown.

Joining us to talk about that is Trish DeBerry, the president and CEO of Centro San Antonio.

Thanks for coming in.

Thank you.

I was going to be here.

Tell us about what this audit showed about the needs of San Antonio downtown.

And safety is harrowing.

We really felt as a board and an organization that we needed to take a step back, from a strategic look regarding what's happening in downtown, what are the gaps?

What are the opportunities to make downtown more safe and secure, by and large?

Let me just say, I think downtown is very safe, but we can't be resting on our laurels.

Like, I mean, we have to continue to innovate and improve and invest.

And this was the audit started before these two.

It did.

Yeah, as a matter of fact.

so it's timely, when the recommendations came down, but these are former military ops guys who were a couple of them Navy Seals who had done similar work in Nashville.

They worked for Gaylord Properties, massive resorts across the country.

they were dispatched to Las Vegas after the mass shooting there, that concert.

So these folks have some street cred?

Yeah, know.

So we did hire them to walk downtown, take a look at the Riverwalk, take a look at street level and because I think what most people don't realize is we have a very large and active downtown, unlike Nashville's in Scott Lower Broadway, which is one street.

I mean, we've got river level, street level.

And so it was a three day time frame that they were here.

really what I was trying to be able to look out is an integrated camera network in downtown, and that could be both reactive, but a lot of proactivity associated with the two.

Like for instance, during Fiesta we had 50 cars that were broken into over our in a valet parking lot.

If I had had cameras to be able to watch what was happening, they might have gotten 2 or 3 cars, but they wouldn't have gotten 50 people assume the right cameras, and there are.

But many of them.

What we found are either not working, they're not very sophisticated, they're not integrated.

So they're not talking to each other.

so the idea would be, is that we've got an integrated network.

but then we have a strategic operations command center in downtown to focus on those cameras, watching what is happening on a very regular basis.

And it could be.

Yes.

We hope it's not something that's a felony offense, but a lot of the misdemeanor activity that's occurring in downtown, we think that we could curb that activity with a network of cameras.

And so this could be something like what's called the fusion center.

Yes.

The police department has on the top floor of the police department, where you have a number of different organizations, but they are watching the entire city.

Right?

This would be just focused on the whole downtown, right?

Yeah.

So it would be laser focused on downtown.

And by the way, as he PD in the fusion center and even the bike patrol operation and, park police do an incredible job in downtown, I'm over there monthly talking those folks.

We are identifying hotspots in downtown where we can deploy, where we can have better patrol activity associated with it.

So this is a daily, ongoing conversation.

so, I mean, nobody's kicking back thinking, hey, we've done enough.

Now it's what do we continue to do?

Because on the horizon, there could be minor league baseball in downtown.

There could be a Spurs arena in downtown.

So that means what density of people.

so the more that we're doing on the front end regarding being proactive about what we're doing with safety and security in downtown, the better off we're all going to be.

Long term.

And you've talked to the police chief about this.

And also those two incidences, as he said, were random.

They weren't a part of an ongoing pattern.

And you think down there.

Yeah, I mean, by and large, like I said, I think downtown is very safe.

But the fact of the matter is this Randy and you know this as well as I do, you know, we have more guns on the street currently than we have people.

And so there is an opportunity for anything to happen, whether it's downtown or whether it's in Bernie, Texas, or whether it's in stone.

Oh, so we've got to constantly, like I said, be on guard regarding that kind of nefarious activity.

So we saw it obviously in siesta and in Market Square yesterday was this.

And then we saw it again at HemisFair.

So some of this is not just what we're doing from a security network standpoint, but what are we doing regarding curfews, in downtown parks and policing and policing.

So what did the, chief say when you were talking with him about?

So I think he's of the same, thought.

And that is we have a lot of patrol officers.

And by the way, central funds, two officers out of our own budget that patrol downtown overnight.

So not to mention the fact we have 130 ambassadors, yes, that are deployed in the yellow shirts and blue shirts all over downtown.

So those are more eyes and ears on the ground, too, that are constantly integrating with bike patrol.

But I think what the police would like.

Yes.

I mean, if he had his druthers and if he had to say yes tomorrow to an integrated camera network, he would be yes all day long, because it's a combination of not just physical presence, but what we're doing from a sophistication standpoint regarding keeping cameras, obviously patrolling what's happening, congregate settings of people gathering and doing, bad activity.

So yeah, but it would take a lot of money.

And that's why he would say yes.

But I think well, I think he would say yes.

We have had meetings with the city about that, about there being a shared cost.

And maybe we start out with a pilot program, right?

We look at the data and say, hey, most of the calls regarding bike patrol are coming to this area of downtown.

Let's deploy a pilot.

Let's take one bite at the apple first.

It's a shared cost between Centro and the city of San Antonio regarding downtown.

And let's look at the data and see how well it's worked.

And then figure out how do we scale it in a way that makes sense.

What are the, the technical problems of trying to integrate, say, private cameras into a more public network with police?

Well, so right now, what we have, we have a lot of obviously hotels in downtown that have their own cameras.

Some stakeholders throughout downtown have ring cameras, right, that are nice, but they're not super sophisticated.

So it would require, you know, this group going to some of the building owners, the stakeholders, the hotels saying, hey, we would like to be able to outfit a camera.

We need your permission to be able to do that.

so that we do have the same sort of network, that's hitting on all cylinders, from a monitoring standpoint that we can network all of that activity.

And now there are also different places where lighting might make a big difference.

I'm shooting a story on the Tower Life building.

I did the whole entire tour around the Riverbend area.

Felt safe at night.

Not a problem.

So a lot of the Ambassadors Park police.

But there are parts of it where it is a little darker and later at night.

I'm sure some people don't feel as safe as.

Yeah, well, I talk about this all the time, and that is it's a combination of things.

Right.

So what are we doing from a technical standpoint which is sophisticated high tech cameras?

What are we doing from a lighting standpoint.

Because lighting deters activity.

We saw that, a very successfully implemented during holidays on Houston when we lit up the entire span of Houston Street.

but the more lighting we have, the more density of people we have, the more activation that we have in downtown.

I don't think, quite honestly, we are ever going to our policy our way out of crime or homelessness anywhere.

Yeah, exactly.

But it's a combination of all these things that make downtown more energized, more vivacious.

and so that criminal element is driven out versus just hanging out, right.

The park.

And that's what we were talking about before.

Some of the other things that you're doing, is working on another project on Houston Tower Life Building is going to bring in 220 apartments, and then the 300 Main, if you talk about some of those.

Yeah.

So when we talk about density of people and really the investment in downtown and truly in the urban core, all the places that you're talking about, whether it's 300 main, which is a luxury apartment complex that's coming online, they're already leasing tower like building.

We have the investment by UTSA, which, by the way, and by 26 or 27, they want to have 10,000 students in downtown.

What does that create that creates demand for all kinds of services, right.

Because we have people living in downtown.

They want a dry cleaners, they want a grocery store, they want a dog groomer.

they want a health club.

They want a gym.

Yes.

All that demand creates an energy that we don't currently have right now.

And HemisFair, we're working on that Alamo Plaza.

Right.

A downside of all this right now is there's construction and some people oh, I can't park.

But you can you can find that.

Yeah.

and tell us about what's going on in Houston in the next.

yeah.

So July 4th, we had Stars and Stripes on Houston Street, which is an inaugural event.

It's a follow up to Holidays on Houston Street, a celebration of the military presence.

Obviously that's main San Antonio Military City, USA.

But it's also about what are we doing to really, revitalize iconic places and spaces in downtown San Antonio, i.e.

Houston Street, right?

When we look at the parades and processions that have happened on Houston Street, whether it was, JFK and the parade that he had during his last tour before the assassination in Dallas, there was a parade on Houston Street in 1963, the armistice parade in 1946, obviously, as we celebrate the troops.

So whether we've had presidents or paratroopers, I mean, Houston Street has been significant.

So it's our job.

Collectively, the city of San Antonio Central visit San Antonio to revive that heartbeat and bring people into the Corps to experience what everybody did during the heyday of Houston.

And how's it going and your new job doing all that?

I love it.

I do, I mean, there's there's great challenges associated with the job as we dig into homelessness and we dig into mental health.

And by the way, we'll have another conversation at some point about the shortage of mental health beds that we have in this community, which is a critical shortage.

We're digging into that every single day crime, obviously.

But, there are also huge opportunities regarding bringing people back into the Corps as we look at sports and entertainment districts.

So there's that to some more issues.

So we can talk about that later too.

Okay.

Yeah.

And I'm a big fan of downtown.

Like I said, I was just down there.

So yeah.

Thank you for being a supporter.

Yes.

We have great things that are happening over the years.

Yeah.

Thanks very much.

Tricia Barry, president and CEO of Central San Antonio.

Thanks.

Thank you.

On Reporters roundtable this week, we are looking at the border, specifically Eagle Pass, where there is a big new project in the works.

And joining us to talk about that is James McCandless, who is a reporter for the San Antonio Business Journal.

Thanks for coming in.

Thanks for me back.

this is a huge new project that was just approve, by President Biden, the administration.

Tell us about this.

Yeah, this is the, Puerto Verde Global Trade Bridge.

It is a new commercial trade crossing in the Eagle Pass area.

It's supposed to cost more than $600 million, supposed to help out carry over the increasing amount of trade that is coming from Mexico.

It's supposed to be rail, roads and pedestrian.

And people don't realize just how much, commercial traffic is coming in along the border.

And not just in Eagle Pass, but Laredo, Del Rio, all the way down to the valley.

And they are biggest source of, of goods.

Yeah.

In in Eagle Pass, specifically that sector process.

It's about $30 billion worth of trade back and forth.

And after this is approved, though, it's still just in the planning stage.

Right.

So the president approved the permit in late May.

It still has to go through a bunch of different regulatory organizations on this side of the border.

And in Mexico.

They also have to conduct an environmental impact study, get public comment, which they already started doing.

And it's just a lot of hoops to go through.

They also have to find a way to finance it, because they have specified that they want to make this mostly, private, privately funded and in the news recently, of course, if you say Eagle Pass, some people think about undocumented immigrants coming across.

But this really has nothing to do with that.

So it won't be affected by any of those border issue.

This is strictly a commercial crossing.

And how is it going to impact, though, in terms of jobs in that area on both sides?

I think it has the potential to, to not not as much as Laredo has seen, in development terms.

But I think, I think something towards that way.

And with Laredo and Eagle Pass and Del Rio accelerating in the growth of the commercial ports, that should affect San Antonio as well, as we are a hub for all those coming through.

Yeah, a lot of this is usually the first stop, besides Laredo, that, that a lot of goods come through.

There are a lot of warehousing in this area that, that the Texas in a lot of those goods and, you know, so that the processed and ready to go to the rest of the country, that's only expected to to continue.

And there is a new administration coming in in Mexico, new president, new government.

But really it's, they expect a continuation of that.

So anything that has to be regulated on the, on the Mexican side shouldn't be affected, by that.

Right.

It's it's the same political party that's going to be going to be taking over the government in Mexico.

and it's it's, it's already got support from a lot of different, Mexican federal and state officials in the area.

it has the support of, of not only President Biden, but Texas senators and a lot of different state level representatives of have already, contributed their support.

So it's it seems like a done deal just needs financing.

And you and the Business Journal have reported on some other big projects, that are maybe more down the road in Laredo, a huge project there, as well as, more growth in, Brownsville.

Yeah.

Laredo is running really hard right now.

Yeah, we just reported on, a new $7 billion development called to lease.

It's supposed to have everything from commercial projects to residential to, to retail to to, warehousing and warehousing specifically is becoming or has been for several years, one of the more important, asset classes in Laredo, as people look to, as, you know, as the trade is becoming more important there, and that's a project that's down the road when you say $7 billion, whoa.

But that's, I guess, over 30 years, something like that.

Yeah.

They've just broken ground on phase one, on part of it.

And there's going to be a lot more moving parts.

And this is a family that's looking at this with the, the older part of the family saying, this isn't for us.

This is for the next generation.

This is sort of a legacy project for, the Walker family.

And, they, are just getting started on what I think is like 100 and, I can't remember how many acres it is, but it's it's, like a whole city in itself.

20 by 20 miles.

20mi².

Yeah.

And now in the valley, as well, they are, expanding in different ways.

Sure.

so, part of the permits that were approved by President Biden were, were, approvals for repairing, and making upgrades to the, the border crossings in that sector.

So along with that, you're seeing a lot of different, things that are prioritizing, making sure that commercial activity continues smoothly in that sector and it's tough to recover.

I would think real estate, because of the private, privacy of some of the people.

How how tough is it to cover this kind of thing and to uncover who's doing what and where?

Well, once you once you get better at looking at property records, it's kind of it can it can it can work itself out.

I'll say that.

It's kind of it's kind of a, it's always just like a puzzle to, to, to put together.

And these are road projects.

And, you know, there's been talk about, more rail projects and making a corridor from San Antonio to Monterrey for decades, but really no progress seen on any of that right now.

Not that I've heard, but, this new, crossing in in, Eagle Pass includes, rail that that, is about a mile and a half that connects up to an existing mine.

and that is owned, I think, by Union Pacific.

So I think that that that rail is still, in the cards is still hot.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

James McCann list.

You can read all about his, border reporting and more in the San Antonio Business Journal.

Thanks.

Thank you.

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

You can see this show again.

You can watch any previous shows as well as download the podcast.

Just go to KLRN.org I'm Randy Beamer and we'll see you next time.

On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho.