Speaker 1: San Antonio is a fast growing fast moving community with something new happening every day.

And that's why each week we go on the record with the Newsmakers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the reporters round table to talk about the latest news stories with the journalists behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on.

Speaker 2: Hey buddy, I'm Randy Beamer.

Thank you for joining us for this edition of on the record.

A lot of changes in San Antonio this week.

We do have Fiesta coming back a little bit differently, but we also have a new city council for new members of the council after five big runoff elections.

And in district one, uh, one of the biggest subsets, I guess you could say is, uh, Mario Bravo, new Councilman for district one, uh, beating incumbent, Roberto Trevino.

Thank you for joining us.

First of all, what is your, what are your biggest goals for district one and for the city?

What do you see differently, uh, happening because you're elected?

Speaker 1: Uh, well, thanks for having me, Randy.

I, you know, I've always wanted to reform local government in a way in which, um, the people have more of a voice and, uh, that's, that's something that I'm really focused on.

And, you know, I, I was, I was at an event last night after the swearing in ceremony where somebody said, you know, the goal is what you need to do is focus on base hits.

It's not all home runs, it's base hits and like get little changes, little changes, little changes.

I'm really interested in the structural changes at city hall that allow that, that, that shifts city hall so that it sees the public more as their partner and how we make decisions going forward as a community and making sure that we have better public participation processes, uh, better, more opportunities for people to, to provide public input and, you know, sit at the table and, uh, help us participate, you know, help us make decisions on how we move forward.

And so that's, that's a big part of it and that can change so much.

And, you know, there's, we're dealing with challenges like a rising property taxes.

We're dealing with challenges with the homeless situation.

We're dealing with, uh, challenges with, uh, rapid development.

And it, you know, the character of people's neighborhoods are changing.

We're dealing with traffic congestion, we're dealing with, you know, w what do we do about police accountability?

And I want to, I want these structural changes to make sure that the public has more of a voice in how we structural Speaker 2: Changes.

People might wonder what you mean by that.

We're talking about council committees.

We're talking about advisory committees.

Speaker 1: Look at my past record, right?

Um, I was very involved as a, the chair of a stakeholder group with CPS energy.

And I saw that seat.

Well, I felt that CPS energy's culture was not that of a public utility.

It was more like a private company that felt like they had to provide a dividend to the city on a regular basis.

And that's not really the culture of a public utility.

We own CPS energy, and they should be transparent and accountable.

You push for live streaming for them.

I pushed for live streaming of their board meetings, right, because if their, their board meetings were at one o'clock on a Monday, if you couldn't get off work, you couldn't be there.

And since they weren't live streaming, since the videos weren't online, you couldn't see what happened there.

And even if you could take off work, when you, if you did go and attend, you weren't allowed to speak there.

We didn't have a, a forum for public comment like you have at the city.

And so these are some of the changes that I've pushed for.

And we, we implemented those in 2019, um, as part of, uh, we, I, it wasn't just me.

It was, uh, all of the environmental stakeholders that met with them quarterly.

And, um, but that's, those, those are the base hits the structural reforms that allow the public to engage more with their government.

And Speaker 2: Now let's get into your background a little bit.

People might be meeting you for the first time now, uh, you are from Laredo and then where did you go from there?

Speaker 1: Well, you know, radio story, that's funny.

Yeah.

I grew up in Laredo until third grade.

And so I really feel like, yeah, I have some of the right of roots, but I grew up in San Antonio and we all went to Boone elementary school for one year, then Lockhill elementary, rudder, middle school, Clark high school.

Um, and so I most, you know, Speaker 2: You're a hometown boy, Speaker 1: I'm going to let them do that.

Okay.

You know, I still have some love for Lori.

Speaker 2: And then you talked about public affairs when you got into college, what did you want to do?

Where do you want it Speaker 1: To be?

You know, I wanted to be a mechanical engineer and, uh, I got involved and, uh, and I got really engaged actually, you know, uh, I was, I joined the society of automotive engineers.

We took a, uh, Chevrolet pickup truck, and we that ran on gasoline.

We converted it to run on ethanol and we competed against 14 other engineering schools at Detroit, um, uh, general motors, secret proving grounds, uh, outside of Detroit.

Um, and so I was very engaged in that, but then I got to the point where I started to feel like I was afraid that I was going to be an engineer who just designed the bolts that go on the front left wheel of a Ford escort or something like that.

And I, I, you know, I wanted to be more involved in shaping our world in our community.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

And so you worked for the environmental defense fund.

Speaker 1: Well, I got a degree in history then because I got involved in political campaigns and trying to shape public policy and shape the future of our government.

And, um, I, I was bit by the political bug you could say.

And so I decided, you know, what, I just need to get a degree and go on and work.

And so I got my degree in history, worked on a bunch of political campaigns, decided I wanted to shift where my career was going.

And, um, that's when I decided to retool and go and get my master's in.

Speaker 2: And now you ran against, uh, Paul Elizondo for county commissioner lost a couple of years ago, running against Trevino and other a long time incumbent you were positioned, or at least people were talking about, oh, there's the progressive aid.

And no, you're both in the progressive lane.

How are you different than Roberto Trevino?

What are we going to see different on the council?

Because Speaker 1: We both a progressive brand, I'll say where I differed want is I was looking at the big picture and I was looking at structurally, what, what influences the decisions made at city hall?

And I'll say a big, big picture issue where structurally, uh, Trevino and I differed was on, um, campaign contribution limits.

I believe that more money from lobbyists from the, the, the donor class influencing decisions at city hall, you know, more money is poured into campaigns for elected officials is not good for the community.

I feel like it tilts the balance of power against the community to Reno twice, tried to increase campaign contribution limits, you know, and, and I fought it both times.

And so that's, that's a structural issue there.

That's not a real sexy issue, but it changes the influence of decisions at city hall.

Speaker 2: A lot of it hasn't been made about, well, the council tilting to the left with you and Tara Casio and district five, is that the case?

Do you see, uh, some business people have been quoted to say, well, we w we're not sure what's going to happen here.

Uh, is that okay?

Speaker 1: A lot of questions about that.

I think it remains to be seen, you know, I'm going to work with everybody.

I think that, uh, at the end of the day, what matters is, uh, to the average voter is what's in front of them on their street, what's in front of their house, you know, did you get w where are their sidewalk?

Everybody pays property taxes.

Where are my sidewalks?

Why is there a pothole, big cars speeding by the infrastructure again?

Yeah.

It's going to be a big, it's a big issue.

I think if you're delivering on that, then you can work on some of the big picture issues.

And I think it remains to be seen where we're going to end up, you know, Speaker 2: And you're literally hitting the ground running.

I don't know if they can show you, you got the shoes on here.

I did, I didn't have time.

And you don't have a staffer yet.

I mean, you're Speaker 1: On your own.

We have staff right now.

I might just out there hitting meetings.

I've got great people who are coming on the team who are volunteering right now.

No, none of it's.

We're still waiting for the paperwork.

Um, but, uh, um, I've been, I've been acting as the council member ever since the election was over.

People don't understand, well, you have to wait and get sworn in.

And so they start asking for meetings.

And so I've been showing up for meetings where people are concerned about, uh, noise violations from nightclubs.

I've been showing up at meetings where people are concerned about crime in their neighborhoods.

And so, Speaker 2: And it won't stop for at least another two years.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Again, this is the new city Councilman for district one, Mario Bravo.

Thanks for coming in.

Thanks a lot.

Joining us now on other, other new council members with a familiar name.

This is Phyllis via Groton, who is replacing her sister, Rebecca via of district three.

And her sister was term limited, but you were just talking a moment ago about when you decided to run and why a couple of years ago, right?

Yeah, It was December, 2019.

Uh, the, the news of COVID, it wasn't called COVID back then, but the Corona virus was coming out and I thought about the district, what sort of leadership they would need moving.

Uh, and so I decided to really think about running, uh, start talking to people, uh, understanding that it would be a big undertaking and just really waited to see what opportunities, uh, how everything unveiled itself.

And, you know, we, we hit the pandemic.

We were put into a stay at home and I was furloughed.

Let go from my job at visit San Antonio, got a part-time job.

And everything just kind of opened up for me to run for city council.

Let's it?

Yeah.

Let's go back into some of your background when people might think, okay, well, you're Rebecca sister.

We know about you.

You're a known quantity, but you're different than your sister in terms of where you went to school in terms of some of your background, tell people about that.

So I went, I went, my undergraduate was up at, uh, in Lubbock, Texas over at Texas tech, which is a, you know, a completely different part of Texas, but I very much enjoyed that.

Uh, I got my master's in bicultural studies.

My undergrad was in political science and history.

Um, my work experience was mainly with the people.

I was a teacher for seven years.

Then I worked for the police department as a caseworker for domestic violence.

It's called a crisis response team.

Uh, and then after that, I felt like I needed a break because that's a very intense job.

I was working for visit San Antonio.

So it's really been with the people kind of in the community, working with people.

And so I've, I have that perspective.

And that's what I'm bringing to the team.

Now, also on your website, you had labeled different priorities pillars of what you wanted to do.

So the, the biggest one that I think we saw amplified during the pandemic was the digital divide.

And we saw the need for infrastructure broadband infrastructure within the district, uh, especially in some of our rural areas and some of our older neighborhoods.

Uh, so that is definitely one of my priorities.

The second is public safety and the district needs a substation.

And if it could be a public health substation combination, which, you know, uh, my sister was advocating for, let's get it done.

We are the largest, uh, council district.

And we do not have a substation in the area.

Um, the other priority is getting people back to work and making sure that they are in a position where they feel like they have upward mobility or where it's, it's a livable wage.

So that's another priority.

And of course my seniors, we have a great senior community within the district.

We have a great senior community throughout San Antonio and making sure they are coming out of this isolation that they were in and they're equipped to, uh, get back and they feel safe and comfortable getting back into the centers.

Where are you different in terms of policies and your sister?

I, so I, you know, the whole aspect with us is she had the opportunity.

The world heritage had designation had just come through.

Um, there was growth and development Brooks, you know, which is still growing and thriving.

That was kind of a priority.

So it's going to be different because we're pivoting.

She had a way better budget that I'm going to have to work with.

So that's where we're going to be different in terms of the policies, uh, infrastructure is going to be a priority.

Um, and you know, my, my focus is going to be a dig once and best value when we can within the district.

So that's what I want to kind of go in and focus On infrastructure.

We're talking streets, we're talking To broadband infrastructure, we're talking the streets, we're talking the drainage, the lighting, uh, where the traffic lights are going.

Uh, that's one of the, the biggest concerns as I walked to the district, the first concern of course, was the pandemic and getting the vaccine, but the city does an incredible job with that rollout that now they're, they're back to, uh, the, just the infrastructure issues like code compliance and traffic lights and things Like that.

A lot has been made about the new after the runoffs, a new council make-up with, uh, two, uh, more Progressive's winning in terms of, uh, over incumbents.

What do you make of where this council will be focused?

What's going to be different than this than the last time.

I think, I think that the difference in this council is we're going to have a younger and more, a different perspective with that.

I think we're all going to be concerned with getting, um, San Antonio back on track and our priorities going to have to be this budget and what we look, what we look at and what we prioritize.

So that's where, uh, I think that's going to be our priority.

And the other thing is the housing issue is going to come into, um, into focus as we move forward because of the passing of proposition, a equity Funding, as we've heard for a couple of years.

Yeah.

I think, you know, Councilman Gonzales and, and the council, uh, with that equity lens did an incredible job.

And we need to keep that a priority.

And my plan to do that is to, to talk more with, um, the dis the disability community and make sure that their voices are heard as we move forward with these plans.

And now some would see it also as well, more Progressive's would be either antibusiness or there might be that push and pull between business and not, Well, I, you know, I think we, we need to be inclusive of everyone.

If we're talking about inclusive inclusivity, we need to understand that my district makes up a small business owners, you know, large business owners, uh, they're a critical part of the community.

So we need to bring everybody together.

And as I mentioned in my, uh, my statement, this isn't good guys, bad guys, this is a San Antonio trying to get on, on track, like the rest of this nation and trying to get, uh, back to, uh, come back better than before, uh, then this pandemic Most right now, I am looking forward, not in June.

Now.

I am looking forward to Fiesta.

It's a, we definitely a party with a purpose we definitely need to have, but I think what I'm looking forward to is, is getting started.

Um, my staff is already in place, so making sure my staff gets to work and actually just bringing the residents out of this, this isolation that they've been in to.

So we have tons of events planned, um, with mission Marquis within the district that we're going to be, uh, attending and going to Tired of people, comparing you to your sister and have they mistaken you yet?

Well, you know, everyone's like, uh, you look like her, you sound like her, but, uh, I think a lot of people are paying attention and they're, they're realizing our differences.

Well, that's good.

As a younger brother, I feel your pain.

Well, thank you very much, Phyllis, via ground new representative in city council, district three.

Thank you.

Thank you, Randy.

Thank you.

Getting to the heart of the summer.

Now, tourism is getting back to somewhat a, of a normal in San Antonio right now and covering that for the San Antonio express news, the business with tourism and more Randy diamond.

Appreciate you coming in a few weeks ago, a couple of weeks ago, you had a story about the river barges trying to get back to normal in terms of business, but the staffing shortages that have plaguing everybody right now affecting that.

What, what is that story?

Well, they have about 40 Speaker 1: Barges on the, um, the river tours of the San Antonio river, but they only have about, you know, half the number of captains that they need.

So they can't run the barges as frequently as they want.

And you know, anyone who goes to San Antonio, one of the, um, top 10 attractions is usually taking a tour, you know, on the Riverwalk Speaker 2: And the barges, but also this involves the restaurants as well.

And, and parking the barges.

Tell us about that.

Well, Speaker 1: Restaurants for years have run charters at night.

So you have a group of 15 people.

You go to the Casa Rio restaurant and they'll instead of eating at the restaurant, we'll charter a barge and provide the food on the boat.

Um, but they can't rerun because the operators of go Rio, the company that, um, has the city contract for the barges, um, wants the restaurant owners to sign an agreement that if there was a barge accident, someone goes overboard falls that the restaurant owners would be responsible.

And the restaurant owners think that's ridiculous because if it's an error by the barge boat, captain, why should they be responsible?

What do you think is going to happen there?

Well, I think there's going to be some type of compromise.

Worked out the restaurant owners have been putting pressure on the city that gave go Rio, the contract and go real claims.

They want to work it out.

However, they don't have enough boat operators to run the daytime sightseeing barges.

And that's apparently more profitable because, um, you know, for go Rio.

So there's a question of even if they resolve the agreement, whether they'll have enough labor for the evening boats, Speaker 2: A big problem for everybody down there right now, some people are waiting for tables for an hour, hour and a half, even when it's not that busy.

How big a problem is a labor shortage right now.

And where are we in terms of getting back to normal as tourists?

Well, there literally Speaker 1: Are dozens of openings at different venues.

Um, restaurant sections are closed.

Whole restaurants are closed on the river walk.

I'm talking to a new hotel owner the day, day don't know what day.

And he can't open his luxury restaurant in the hotel because he doesn't have enough servers and chefs.

It's, uh, it's a pretty severe problem.

Speaker 2: Okay.

And so if you would want a job get down to the river walk while you're waiting in line to eat, there are a lot of job openings, a lot of postings right there.

Speaker 1: There are.

I mean, I mean, there are postings.

If you drive over all over San Antonio at SeaWorld, they're looking for lifeguards at six flags.

I mean, there's postings all over town.

I mean, one of the issues is, you know, these jobs are, some of them are relatively not high pay.

And, you know, the question is whether if they would raise the salaries, whether they could get more workers and some have raised them.

All right.

Speaker 2: Well, we appreciate it.

Thank you very much for coming in the man who knows everything about tourism and tourism business in San Antonio, Randy diamond, you can read all about his stuff in the San Antonio express news.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Joining us now is local government reporter for Texas public radio, Joey Palacios.

He is going to explain everything about the new city council after hearing from Mario Bravo and Phyllis via ground.

We're talking about this shift that we're seeing in the council or talking a moment ago about, uh, that people thought they saw this shift in the city council and the makeup of the city council a couple of four years ago, but it didn't really happen.

And now it is, we have four new members, two of them, one in these runoff elections over incumbents.

What do you think it means?

What is this going to mean for the people of San Antonio with a makeup of the council now?

Well, in 2017 and 2019, we saw this little bit, a little bit of a shift.

Um, what seemed to be to the left, uh, in, uh, 2019, we lost Councilman Greg Brock house.

So that definitely gave a, um, more of a, of a left-leaning shift when, uh, Melissa could be at Harvard.

Art was put on the council.

Um, but the council, the pat the most recent council has been more moderate, I think, than, than people realize.

Um, when some council members would come in with, with ideas, they, they, I believe they start to see the day-to-day operations of the city and the limitedness of the budget, um, with the new council that just came in and the addition of jail and Mickey Rodriguez and district two, and then Terry Castillo and district five, it does give a little bit of a push to the left because they have very progressive policies.

Uh, for instance, Terry Castillo supports a green new deal style policies, uh, jelly Mickey Rodriguez, um, was highly supported by the democratic socialists of America.

In fact, they both were, uh, also by the Texas organizing project and, uh, they come with a lot of, um, of ideas, like for instance, Mickey Rodriguez, uh, wants to make the, uh, SAP's administrative policy of cite and release, uh, for low level offenses, like marijuana possession to be a city ordinance rather than just a administrative policy.

Um, and also, um, a key Rodriguez, um, yesterday, uh, told the gaggle of city hall reporters that, uh, he would like to create an office of civil rights for the city of San Antonio.

Well, now We've talked before about equity politics and making sure that different parts of the city, uh, get what they deserve and have been missing out on.

Is that going to progress over the next couple of years, you think, or how much can they really change in terms of the day-to-day politics of what's going on with the city?

We have big budget coming up.

Of course, this week we had the, uh, the trial budget, but how much can they affect change if they really want to push for that?

So There's a lot to unwrap there.

Um, and the city is coming out of the, uh, COVID crunch or what they hope is coming out of the COVID crunch.

Um, the, some of the early estimates over the budget for the next five years show a potential, um, uh, shortfall of about $148 million, um, through, uh, through 2026.

Now, when you have a new council, uh, and actually let me supplement that by saying is that some of that can potentially be plugged by the American rescue plan act.

Um, so some of that money coming in could help offset of that, but it's not except where that money is going to go.

That being said, you know, you have these new council members coming in, they have a lot of projects they want to get through.

Um, but there's going to be very limited funds to be able to do that.

So we're a lot of, uh, I think the new council is going to be leaning on is the 20, 22 bond.

And so voters are going to get a chance to vote on that next year.

And it could have close to up to a billion dollars of special projects that the city budget wouldn't be able to handle on its own.

You know, you see a lot of street maintenance.

You see a lot of drainage.

When we were talking to a Terry Castillo, she was wanting sidewalks, for instance, to be a major priority of the upcoming bond.

It's going to be the, these council members having to choose these projects that they want to be included in that, and that's going to be really their only to do it for the next five years because the bond only comes around.

Okay.

What about In terms of, uh, oh, say the developers on the north side, there's always been that kind of push and pull between how much, uh, critics say developers have control over San Antonio or influence over San Antonio.

Do you think that's going to be maybe the main conflict of the city council right now, or one of the main conflicts, you Know, it could be.

And some of the, the longer term council members yesterday were actually, um, telling their newer colleagues that they need to be open to listening to everybody, Clayton Perry, uh, Clayton Perry, and John courage, there is going to be kind of the shuffle because, you know, the, the east, west and south sides, I've just seen, you know, disinvestment to compare it to the north side over, over the decades.

And, you know, that was something that, uh, Castillo had mentioned, uh, yesterday.

Um, something that she really wants to try to address, uh, for the west side as The city develops this budget.

Are you looking forward to any changes down there at, uh, the new city Hall?

So, um, actually what I've noticed in the past couple of weeks is that the, uh, city council, you know, th th there you no longer have to wear a face mask when you go to the council meetings fact during the inauguration, um, and a swearing in this week, it's probably the most number of people I've seen within the council chambers since before the pandemic.

So there definitely is this mood of, of transitioning out, you know, we're not out of the pandemic yet.

Um, at now that is still a very long way to go, but things are starting to starting to get back to what feels like normal.

And one of the ushering in of that was the brand new city hall.

Um, the city has spent right now around $40 million and renovating city hall, but the final price tag isn't set yet, they were, you know, anytime you have to restore a historic building, right, there's going to be surprises.

And, uh, last I had heard is that, um, they're working with the, um, the contractor Guido to see how much the final cost of renovating sit at city hall is, but it is, um, definitely a much more open space than it was before.

Um, and it's, um, you know, from someone that's been covering city hall for almost seven years now, it is quite impressive, um, as to the change that they made refreshing For anybody covering that.

Well, appreciate it.

Joey Palacios of Texas public radio, you can hear him anytime on the radio from their new fancy digs downtown, right there on San Pedro Creek per shift.

And thank you for joining us for this edition of on the record.

You can see this show again, or previous shows as well as our podcast@krn.org.

Thanks for watching.

We'll see you next time.