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.

I'm Randy Beamer, and this week we are going to start with the story of a San Antonio leader that you may or may not know a lot about yet, but you've probably seen in the news as he has decided to retire and he has been called a transformational leader, made a lot of changes in San Antonio that you might not realize.

Want to talk with, Jorge Hernandez, who has been president and CEO of University Health since 2005.

Ryan, thank you very much for coming in.

Sure.

And congratulations, I should say.

But first of all, why why retire?

You know, I, I'm not getting any younger.

The Rolling Stones have a have a comment.

You know, the time waits for no one.

I've been CEO over 19 years, getting closer to 20.

And and, from day one, I've always looked at succession planning, making sure that the system continues down a certain path.

And we have a great team.

So I thought this was a time we just finished a Women and Children's hospital, opened it up in December of last year and finishing up other projects.

We're starting two new hospitals, one on the Deep South side near Texas A&M San Antonio, and another one, a near a Tama, on the northeast side.

those projects take three years.

And you.

I'd be 75 by then if I wait, you know.

So.

So what are you most proud of over this time?

Because you have grown the university health system from the budget alone is, like 5 or 6 times what it was when you got into it.

And for me, it's it's been the the fact that university health has become one of the best recognized, most trusted health systems in the in the community.

You know, I think it's number one now when, when, when I was growing up here in San Antonio, it was considered just the county hospital in the Bexar County hospital system of schools.

And, and you went there, you had no other choice.

And so I think today to have the, as ranked as a top academic medical center, we just received our leapfrog grade, were a, a leapfrog grade.

Is is a safety grade, of how good we compare against other hospitals.

And we're a rated, we're the only public system in the state of Texas that I know that's a rated with the there's a couple other in San Antonio, but that's a big thing.

We're also rated A by a different organization for social responsibility.

So that's also important.

We do our mission well.

And how about here in San Antonio I know in many different fields, people in San Antonio have felt overshadowed by Houston, say, or Dallas.

And there are some other hospitals in the state that get more publicity or have in the past.

Is that one of the things you're proud of?

You're finally getting up there in in that, that public mindset?

Yeah, there's a lot of really, really good hospitals in the state of Texas.

we want to be in that group.

and I think we've we've reached there, we have a really good partnership with UTSA Science Center, San Antonio, which is now UT Health San Antonio.

that's made a huge difference.

They've they've made a lot of strides themselves.

That partnership is a strong one.

We hope to develop the same kind of partnership on the South Side with Texas A&M.

But that that you know, it's about people.

It's you know the buildings of great.

We've built a lot of buildings in the last 20 years.

But the more important thing is, you know, what have we done in terms of improving health care and the health care?

That's another, knock on San Antonio, especially the south side versus the north side.

And just overall over the years, the the life expectancy on the south side is less.

You've been here even before you with the hospital system.

Assistant city attorney.

Was that one of the things top of mind from the beginning that you wanted to address?

Absolutely.

And it's kind of an interesting thing.

You know, I've always looked at my my work more as a vocation than as a job.

And when I was in the city attorney's office, you're you're committed to helping the public and within the the mission of the city of San Antonio, later on with them, within the mission of the of the DA's office in the, in the county.

And so, really that that mission hasn't really changed.

It's just a different aspect of it.

You know, I was and, had a very general mission working in the city attorney's office on economic development, on on improving, getting, bringing jobs to San Antonio and that sort of thing.

when I switched over to health care.

That's also very, very important for this community.

You're right.

The South Side has been, left behind and, in a lot of ways.

And so committing to do something on the South Side is important.

I grew up on the South side, and, but San Antonio's a lot bigger now.

And and the downtown, hospitals that were here when I was a kid are really not the same.

They're, they're they're old.

And, you know, hospitals have a lifespan of about 50 years in terms of in terms of, technology, you know, they they become outdated, they become, impossible to really to have great clinical care.

So that's what we had to invest in, in.

So and what about in terms of growth for San Antonio?

Because there's a lot of growth forecast I-35 corridor San Antonio to Austin technology and is is Austin more manufacturing.

And in San Antonio at least it has been in the South side.

How important is health care to allowing the growth on the south side and encouraging more growth?

I think it's really important because, you know, the it you know, health care is probably that sector probably has the best paying jobs and they're in demand.

we have to, recruit from outside the city.

We have to recruit from outside the state.

We have to recruit from outside the country sometimes, because of the demand we want to we've been very invested in growing talent here for that reason.

as baby boomers retire and I'm a baby boomer, as you know, as we retire, there's going to be a huge vacuum.

Our our generation is huge compared to the next generation, the following ones.

So we're a lot bigger.

I think we're 20 million more people in our generation than in generation X.

More 65 year old is retiring every day.

That's right.

Or people turning 65.

What about, tell people about the the timelines of the latest two hospitals, the one near Tom on the one on the south side.

When do those expect to open?

Because you had groundbreaking late last year on the South Side early 2027 I think is is a target.

You know, we there's a lot of work particularly on the on the one by A&M, infrastructure development.

We're working closely with both stores and, and CPS energy to provide the, the infrastructure we need.

there we're moving a lot of dirt, putting in drainage, that sort of thing.

And the other one under Tom is a little bit easier because that's that area has been developed.

over the years.

And so, we expect that when to maybe a little bit earlier.

What kind of roles will these play, especially in the one on the South Side?

Because there's not a lot of, health care or hospital in that area.

people might think, well, it's going to have to be more of a multi purpose hospital because on the medical center, you can you can specialize.

what is it going to be if I have a problem.

What can I go there for?

The, the both hospitals are going to be community hospitals are being designed exactly the same way.

they're being designed for about 300 beds, probably opening with about 150, you know, and we grow into those, into the 300 over time.

both those hospitals, I think we're going to have the sort of things that are low acuity, but but require hospital care, low acuity, meaning?

Meaning less complicated.

The transplantations and the level one trauma.

So say the university hospital.

But, medicine patients that have medical issues, the issues related to, childbirth, that sort of thing can be handled in this community hospitals in a much better setting, closer to home, convenient for the for families and convenient, for providers as well, who live in the area.

What about developing new talent, growing people who are in the health care industry in that area?

Yeah, that's that's an excellent question because that's one of the reasons we chose the area by Texas A&M.

Texas A&M has a medical school.

and they are very interested.

We have an affiliation agreement already with them, very similar to the affiliation agreement we entered into with with, UT back in the 1960s.

And and the plan is over the next ten, 20, 30 years to develop that as a top tier academic medical center.

So what are you going to do after you retire?

You know, that's a good question.

I think I'm I'm going to decompress a little bit.

I want to spend time with my grandkids.

I want to travel a little bit, and I want to write, write and write about because there's not a whole lot you could write about over the decades that you've worked here.

Probably my experiences over, over time, you know, I it doesn't escape me that I'm not the tradition CEO for a health system.

I'm an attorney by profession, and so I want to kind of ponder how I got here, you know, and how that's helped me or hurt me or and there's a lot of twists and turns people don't realize.

And I guess you could say politics.

Over the decades of how San Antonio's hospitals and systems and health care have evolved and might have evolved differently.

is that one of the things that you'll get into to maybe make it easier for others to make some of those decisions?

It could be.

I mean, I, I enjoy reading, Nelson Wolf's books and he does a lot of that.

And I think he was, a transformational leader.

And it helped me to have him and Paula Elizondo and the county commissioners, all those years that I was, CEO and, and really had, the same sort of vision of making San Antonio a better place to live.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

And thank you for doing that, George.

And unders, who has been, the president and CEO of University Health for a couple of years now.

Yeah.

And congratulations on the next phase of, of your career.

Thank you very much.

Whether there should be horse carriages on the streets of downtown San Antonio or maybe in a park in San Antonio, that issue has come up again.

You may have seen in the news.

Joining us now to tell us about the latest is Filosofia Grande Council member, district three.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thank you, Randy, for having me.

I'm excited to be here.

I think this is an issue that we need to have a full conversation on and really have a conversation, and I think up until this point, it's been polarized to one one side or the other, and there's just options there that we need to talk about.

Well, let's kind of back up because for literally decades this has been an issue off and on.

Some people think it's, you know, opponents to having the horse carriages downtown.

Well, you tell me what what you feel about why they shouldn't be there.

So I think right now with the construction downtown, with the, what's going on in the streets, the heat island effect that we're seeing in the downtown area because traffic is not moving like it normally does there.

As we as we have all these construction projects that it is impacting the carriages and the horses.

And is this the best, you know, course of action.

The other is we've just had really hot summers and we need to make sure that the, the visitors that are sitting in the horse carriages, the horses and the drivers are doing okay in these 100 plus temperatures.

Now, the people who run the carriage companies and I understand there are five of them each have five carriages, have said consistently that it is safe for them.

They monitor the health.

They have veterinarians.

what would you say to that?

Especially now, because in the past they have said it's it's consistent, but they also say that you haven't or some people haven't talked to them from the city council in about 16 months.

Well, I think one thing we're looking at is I know nobody is saying they don't have the veterinarians that are taking care of the horses.

I they are taking care of the horses.

The horses look like they're in good condition.

But what I say is, are we keeping track of how long some of these horses are standing behind a car with exhaust?

Because that is my concern right now, because that cannot be good for the horses, the drivers or the, or the the patrons in the, in the car, in the carriage.

So that's the one data that I haven't seen, you know, we haven't seen of.

Are you monitoring that?

Are you taking into consideration when you get in a route where we have a heavy traffic day and New Year's Eve, even when we have warm New Year's Eve, that that's a big day where people still want to be in the carriages.

But there's traffic downtown that is at a standstill.

So that's the one thing I'm information I'd like to get from them.

What do you tell people, I guess, on both sides, who thought this issue was behind this or it wasn't an issue until recently when it was scheduled to be on a committee of the city council.

How did it come up again?

And also the issue of whether it should be maybe at Brackenridge Park, they should have carriages there instead of downtown.

What, that the Brackenridge Park and alternatives and and seasonal was always something I was thinking some group would bring up as an alternative to, to just removing them, which they have done in big cities, you know, across the nation and globally.

They've they've removed horse and carriage rides from some of the bigger cities that you iconically think, oh, we're going to go to New York and get a ride on a horse and carriage.

That doesn't happen anymore.

So what do we do here to kind of see, hey, we do have we do have people that run this and run it well, but how do we get it done so that it is not.

It's not adversely impacting the animals and our animal.

Animal rights groups are coming in force because they just think this is this is a bad treatment of animals.

And how do we address some of their concerns when we know that there's 100 plus days when we know that the traffic isn't moving like it's supposed to downtown with some of the events and conventions, can we move them somewhere else?

so that's where I would like us to see where we go, where we start to have conversations and we don't we just don't make it about two issues.

So what's the timeline now on this?

What do you hope to happen next and how, you know, public input, things like that?

Well, we haven't gotten the agenda yet.

people are still coming for public comment, but public comment is is full of, you know, all sorts of, speakers coming.

So what I'm hoping is that we can get it on the, the committee's agenda, which it's the, you know, community Health environment Committee that we have.

And I am hoping we can get it on that agenda by May or at least June, and then have that opportunity to get public comment through the summer or right before, budget.

That is a meeting specifically designated to discuss this issue.

And are you pushing for electric carts without the horses like they have in some other cities?

Now I'm moving toward that.

I think that's where the discussion is, because, you know, for some of the families that use that, they're they're like, as long as we have a carriage that works and we can do the ride, downtown for Christmas.

But I think for, for others, they, they like the idea of the horse and carriage.

And if we can still maintain that here, with a with an alternate route or with designated days, I, I'm looking for that, too.

But I think we need to come with alternatives and and solutions to what we're facing right now in downtown with the growth in the construction.

And if we could, if I could bring up just another topic that I know people are asking about is your health, you have emergency surgery a few months back, and it turns out you have, the same thing that Congressman Joaquin Castro does.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's neuroendocrine tumors.

and it's a it's a carcinoid type cancer.

So it's hormonal.

It can be treated with shots.

Congressman Castro and I are on the same treatment plan.

but it is something that doesn't normal happen to people until they hit their late 60s, early 70s.

So, I'm in conversations with him and other medical professionals to kind of talk about how do we bring awareness to this?

I'm still able to do the job at City council.

I'm still out and about.

But you know, catching this early is key and making sure that you get the scans and you get the blood work that can help identify it is is going to be critical for others.

And you caught it because you had symptoms.

He caught it because he had been in an accident.

It was totally unrelated.

He hadn't had symptoms.

What are some of those symptoms?

So the symptoms are it mainly digestive symptoms.

So if you have, trouble eating, if you have, you know, trouble just keeping food down, those are some of the symptoms that you have.

The the other thing is, loss of appetite and then, but not being able to lose any weight was one of the symptoms.

and then it was just a flurry of cramping, things like that.

And it was also then hard, not hard, but more difficult for doctors to diagnose maybe than some other more common.

Well, yeah.

And and just to be honest, when you, when you get to my age, which is 50, everybody wants to say it's menopause.

So you kind of sit there and you're like, is this menopause?

So that's another conversation.

You know, when I use my voice to have is, hey, let's know what is happening to our bodies and what is normal and what is not normal.

So I think I think that and talk to your doctor about that.

Ask questions, talk to your doctor.

And if you don't like your answers, you know, talk to talk to some other medical professionals.

Look at your insurance.

If you have a dial a nurse program, and I am I am so happy with the service I got when they took me in for emergency surgery.

And the nurses are just our unsung heroes that work so hard to make sure that that you get you get from surgery to home.

So I think, I think that's key.

I mean, the doctors are doing a great job, but they don't see you near as near as much as the nurses do.

Well, we wish you the best.

And, thanks for coming in.

And thanks for talking about that, because a lot of people wanted to know.

Okay.

Thank you.

I appreciate any, fellows via Grand Council District three.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Congressman Henry Cuellar was indicted last week for bribery, along with his wife.

Here to, tell us all about it is Andrea Drudge, San Antonio report politics reporter.

Thank you very much.

This is obviously a still developing story, but if you had to, you know, just put the capsule of the lead in this story.

Where are we right now in his indictment and the fallout?

Ooh, I guess that depends where you live here.

This 54 page indictment that came out on Friday has some juicy details for San Antonio.

he was holding his wife was holding business meetings with a foreign oil company here.

His campaign manager, who was well known in San Antonio politics, has worked here for a long time, was implicated in this, saying that he was, being used to, launder bribe money.

So here and and when this story broke, I think the involvement of the campaign manager especially interested fans of Jessica Cisneros, his old primary opponent, who they ran a really ugly race against, those details of, you know, got people talking here.

There's still an individual three that has yet to be identified, who's from San Antonio, who's in this report nationally.

This is also drawing a lot of attention.

He's on the House Appropriations Committee.

He has a leadership role there where he's the top Democrat on the Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee.

He's already been replaced temporarily.

There's reports that his chief of staff has left in DC.

there's something in this report for everybody.

No matter what you cover.

It wasn't all a surprise because the FBI had said they've been investigating him for some time, but, and Congressman Coy, by the way, for those who don't know, district 28, that runs from San Antonio down to the Laredo area and the border.

But tell us where this came from.

This whole Azerbaijani, bribery thing might just still, it's a little odd to comprehend.

It sounded so strange when they raided his home two years ago, right before the election, or, I guess, almost ten months out from the election.

but he had taken a trip there according to this indictment.

And then they the government officials there targeted him and and started he started a consulting agreement with his wife and was doing business.

It was for an Azerbaijani company.

What you would think, okay, when it comes to an oil company owned by their government there, and he got involved with helping them, fight a war and got involved where he gave a floor speech on their behalf.

He agreed.

And according to this indictment, it's alleged that he had agreed to slip language into committee reports that would help them.

and then and this is all starting in 2014, when he got his leadership role in the Appropriations Committee and then similar story playing out with an international bank, in Mexico, and all for a grand total of $600,000, according to this indictment.

it and his wife was getting, consulting job and that was supposedly she used to work for the state.

She worked for the controllers and had retired in 2012 and was meeting with people.

And then it sounds like peddling influence to her husband.

And now, in fairness, what is his response been to all this?

His response has been, I'm not doing anything that any other member of Congress isn't doing, and that he's innocent and that he's going to run for reelection.

And if you remember this race in Texas 28, it's huge.

It stretches from San Antonio all the way down to the border.

Tons of money into this district last time.

but it's it was reshaped in a way that it's a Biden plus seven district.

He won it by 13, meaning Biden won with seven.

Okay.

And so it should be Democratic strong.

Yes.

He had a primary challenge that, went into overtime and, you know, went into a recount.

And then he had national Republicans targeting him with a really strong candidate in a ton of money behind her last time.

And it was a blowout.

He won by 13 percentage points.

So this time around, Republicans don't even know their nominee yet.

They're headed to a runoff.

But it's not a race that they've targeted.

They closed their field office in that district.

They said this is not a good prospect for us.

But now he has until August to decide whether he's going to be on the ballot.

But any number of things could happen between now and then and now.

Next to that district, 28 is another district that's getting a lot of attention.

Anyway, whether or not it's getting money, whether or not it's going to be in play.

Tell us about that district, Texas 23, another huge district all the way from the border to San Antonio, which is Tony Gonzalez's district now, this was the old Will Hurd district that was, you know, one of the most competitive in the state.

But it's also been redrawn in a way that's not really politically competitive anymore.

It's a Republican plus five district.

and he now has a Republican primary challenger who he has to face off with on May 28th.

And national Republicans said how you wish he'd done more to circumvent this primary?

Brandon Herrera Yes, the AK guy.

So the national Republicans have now spent some money on his behalf here trying to take this one off the map for themselves.

I think you hear a lot of conversation about whether either of these districts would be in play.

But comparatively, you've got these state House races like Steve Allison's district after he lost his primary.

That's like a very evenly split politically district.

And it's still not one we hardly talk about.

We've got another state House district 118.

That's like, you know, just on the line.

These are not close districts.

So in terms of money also being spent on them, how much money is being spent on them?

Even though we may think that they're competitive?

Well, the money right now is going toward helping out Tony Gonzalez in this primary, hoping on Republicans part that they don't have to deal with a, Brendan Herrera race against a Democrat.

And then on in Texas 28, I don't know if anyone is spending there yet.

Last cycle, it had millions of dollars spent there.

It was part of the trio of South Texas House races where, after Donald Trump had made some inroads in South Texas, they put a ton of money in there.

But the districts had been redrawn in a way that they weren't really great targets then either.

And that's really one of the stories out of this is that after what was a couple years ago when all this redrawing happened, it took a lot of those competitive races off the table, is competitive and made them into competitive primary races.

Thanks very much.

I know you have a lot that you'll be covering for the next few months on all these primary races.

Andrea Rush, political reporter and more for the San Antonio Report.

Thanks very much, and thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can see the show again or previous shows.

You can download the podcast any time.

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