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.

Joining us now as we go on the Record with Randy Beamer.

Hi, everybody, and thank you for joining us for this week's edition of On the Record.

I'm Randy Beamer.

And this week we are talking money, the economy all around San Antonio, up to Austin and down into Mexico.

And we start with a guy who should know a little bit about it, former mayor, former HUD secretary, former and current businessman, author, raconteur, whatever else.

Did I miss anything?

Henry Cisneros joins us.

Thank you very much for coming in.

You are working right now on a program that will air next month here on Callahan called Business to Business.

And in this, you are getting into pretty much every aspect of what's going on in San Antonio.

You just came off a show where you are here, where you did San Antonio to Austin, the mega metro.

And in looking at all of this right now, where are we?

How are we doing?

Post-Pandemic strengths, weaknesses?

Well, I would say in a word, we are doing better than ever, literally.

And I've been watching this very closely for the last 40 years and studied the period before that.

San Antonio's never had a moment like it is having or about to have.

I don't think this is at all, you know, wild projections into the future.

There's nothing slowing or stopping in terms of the economic interest around the country, around the world, in this region.

And I use those words advisedly, this region, me, Pflugerville, north of Austin to Floresville, south of San Antonio.

It's one of the fastest growing regions in the world today, the region about 5 million people by 2050 or sooner, more like 8.5 million people.

And that's because the technology industries are growing the base of new infrastructure here, including, for example, the automotive cluster.

Who would have imagined that San Antonio would?

It would have one of the largest automotive manufacturing facilities in the world.

Was that even on the radar when you were mayor?

We were courting Japanese companies and courting Japan.

It was a 16 year courtship.

I remember the sister city well before even even more importantly than that was a woman named Mrs. SHAHANI, who was our representative in Japan.

And she happened to have been the cousin of Dr. Toyota's wife.

And so she never stopped selling San Antonio for all the 16 years that we worked on it.

And the result was Toyota.

Then you have Navistar.

People don't know.

That's the former International Harvester truck maker of trucks.

And then you have now that massive plant that Elon Musk has built in Austin for Tesla.

And then you have suppliers for all of those and they're different.

The 21 suppliers that that supply Toyota in San Antonio around the plant are different from the kind of companies.

Lithium batteries, all the electrical support system for a Tesla.

So the region is just just booming and I think there's much more to come.

We just had this announcement of the British company JCB.

1500 jobs South of the Toyota plant.

So the the growth continues literally in the interior.

Looking at Austin in the region as you have and and as you're doing right now, it sounds like we're still getting manufacturing assembly jobs in San Antonio and South Austin, still getting tech jobs to the north.

So the region is it's diversified, I would say.

The picture you paint is accurate, but not complete.

We have our share of technology jobs here.

For example, in cybersecurity, we've got probably 20,000 people working in cyber security technology because the Air Force has their major cybersecurity facilities here, and geekdom now has created over 300 companies.

Most of them with some tech, 300, 300.

They had a goal of 500 in ten years.

They've created 300 in two years.

So it's nothing to sneeze at in terms of our own technological development.

And I think much more is coming because people are now thinking of this as a region.

They're coming from California, Michigan, other places to the region.

Then they look at land prices and they look at labor availability and they look at home prices for their employees.

And San Antonio makes a good complement to the Austin.

You've also looked at and are looking at now the region from here into Mexico.

Monterrey Back in the eighties, we talked about maquiladoras, the twin plants right along the border, along the border, just across the border.

Right.

And then developing hopefully this line between here and Monterrey, Maybe that was going to be a rail line.

Where are we now?

I think a couple of things have happened in recent years.

One of them is Monterrey, which is the second largest city in Mexico, and it's industrial center.

Imagine a combination of steel from Pittsburgh, heavy manufacturing from Cleveland and automotive from Detroit, and put it in one place in Mexico.

And that's what Monterrey is.

So Monterrey and the surrounding area, we're 150 miles north of the border there, 150 miles south of the border.

But a lot of industrial traffic between us now and growing.

They've also got fantastic education.

Monterrey Tech is regarded as the MIT equivalent.

But Randy, in addition to Monterrey, Leon, when I want to, Queretaro characterizes a city of 1.5 million people.

It's no small place and they have big manufacturing, automotive manufacturing related.

So if you look at the map, there's a cluster of automotive that runs from Tesla in Austin through San Antonio, Toyota and Navistar suppliers in South Texas, suppliers in northern Mexico, Big Automotive in Monterrey.

We're a serious player.

Do you expect more automotive in San Antonio and around San Antonio?

I would think more automotive support related, whether it's another big plant or not, I don't know.

Could be.

But for sure we're developing the skills, the capabilities and have the supplier base would be so much closer being so much cheaper.

The labor across the border in Mexico as well.

The other dynamic that's occurring is not cheaper labor.

That used to be a selling point, but now it's security and safety of the supply chain.

What happened during the pandemic?

First of all, suppliers in China shut their doors because they were so draconian in the way they handled the pandemic that people couldn't get critical parts like semiconductors, which are all over cars now.

And and and so the supply chain slowed down.

Then you had problems in shipping itself.

And then now you have these tensions between the United States and China, where we don't want to put our economy in their hands, where if they just chose to shut something off, we get hurt.

So a process called near shoring or on shoring, the opposite of offshoring is happening.

And that is plants are coming to places that are closer.

And Mexico, northern Mexico seems to be the ideal because they do have labor at reasonable prices, because they have land available, because they have the technology base already established and because they're close.

So are we going to be more of that trucking, shipping hub?

Right now we are not.

We I think the trucking shipping hub is Laredo.

Do you realize that Laredo is the busiest crossing point for cargo between two nations in the world?

So some basic infrastructure like crossing bridges and roads and rail and airport cargo facilities are going to have to be upgraded in the Laredo area.

But yes, this is the NAFTA highway, age 35.

I know.

What is that going to mean for San Antonio?

Are we just going to be a stop on that NAFTA highway or are we going to be a distribution point and more?

Is it?

I think we're going to be more of a location for supply buyers like the suppliers.

It came for Toyota.

They will be receiving parts that are coming in from Mexico doing whatever process they're destined to do and integrating them into the Toyota or the Navistar or the Tesla.

Tesla has talked about putting a facility in Monterrey themselves.

So I used to think this was I mean, when I was mayor, I started some working relationships with Monterrey and continued on what we had built over the years.

But I wasn't positive that it would come to ground and all of a sudden this cluster is very real.

Automotive people are only here right now, the problems on the border, and they would think that that would slow down.

It doesn't slow down the business, it doesn't slow down commerce.

So you have to take more precautions like check trucks to make sure that they're not bringing contraband and so forth.

And the waiting lines are hours long at Laredo right now because of the checks.

Some of that will have to be fixed with additional checkpoints, more capacity.

But this is now critical to the United States.

We're getting supplies from northern Mexico that we used to have to bring from Taiwan and China, Korea and other places by boat.

And now they're driving by truck across the border.

Wish we had more time to talk.

One quick question.

I know your baby is the West side.

You live in the West Side.

You were born there.

There.

And how how are things on the west side right now?

In a nutshell, I think we're seeing some momentum.

It will be long and slow because there's been so long a narrative that the West Side is poor and there's crime and and drug addictions, etc..

But I mean, the economics just jump out at you.

Here we are, 4 minutes from the downtown and see the buildings of the downtown land is available for development.

People and workforce are there.

It's a matter of and there are think if people have been there the point of this the corridor corridor right there where you are right you see more businesses coming.

So I think so I think it's a long haul.

But but I think economics always wins in the end.

All right.

Well, thank you very much, Henry Cisneros.

The show San Antonio Austin Mega Metro is on right now.

And Kayla, in a business the business will be on next month.

You're getting into TV.

You're going to do more of that.

I enjoy working with KLRN in that TV generally, but KLRN was such a public television politician.

My TV station, Henry Cisneros, thank you very much.

And now here to talk more about the San Antonio economy, the north side in particular is the new president and CEO of the Northside Chamber of Commerce, Brett Finley.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Hey, thanks, Renee.

You've been on the job now all of officially six or 7 to 6 or seven days.

And now, first of all, there are a number of chambers of commerce in San Antonio.

There's also greater US ATX.

There's now again greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, Hispanic Chamber.

Tell us about the evolution of Chambers of Commerce these days, what they do, what they don't do.

We have maybe misconceptions about them these days.

Yeah, I mean, there are several chambers, not only here in San Antonio, across the state of Texas, across the country.

I think what separates the North San Antonio Chamber isn't necessarily its geographic specificity in Bear County, because we have members that are all over the county.

If you look at the diverse makeup of our board, not only industry, but then also where they're they're living and working in in Bear County, across Greater San Antonio.

But I think the identity that separates the North San Antonio Chamber is its member driven focus.

We're an advocacy led organization that wants to focus and prioritize its members.

We want to foster economic growth opportunities and maintain business and industry here in San Antonio, not only for now, but in the future.

And now that sounds like every chamber of commerce would do that.

Am I wrong now or you're not wrong?

I mean, I think there's always a center of focus.

But I think what separates the North Chamber specifically is its agility and independence to pivot on a moment's notice if there's a new regulatory changes, our board has the flexibility to make really quick changes that, you know, whether it's action that needs to be taken at a local government, state government or up with members of Congress, they have that ability to move on a moment's notice.

As you mentioned, members of Congress over the summer, there were articles in some or some articles over the past year that the Republican House majority is not in tune as much with the US Chamber of Commerce, at least when they pushed for raising the debt ceiling.

Some of the culture war Republicans, the MAGA Republicans weren't in line that the US Chamber of Commerce anyway doesn't have the sway.

Do you find that in San Antonio when you try to get to members here because there are some who you could consider MAGA members of Congress?

Yeah, I won't speak for, you know, sort of the, the nationwide, you know, members of Congress specifically, but I think relations wise with our Bear County delegation here, it's never been stronger.

I think we're in lockstep agreement for the most part on direction of where we want to take San Antonio moving forward.

Obviously, with the conversations right now involving the debt ceiling, you know, we're approaching another impasse with a potential government shutdown, I believe, on November 17th.

But communication remain strong.

And I think that's what I'd like to to continue our focus, you know, maintain those existing relationships with our Bear County delegation in Congress to make sure that, hey, we're we're having an open door conversation if there's policies and perspectives that we need to hear about, but then also vice versa, right?

If there's business community interests that are in play that are going to impact our members, we want to make sure and let them know about it.

And some have said in the past that chambers of commerce, at least some of them, have become less relevant.

How do you make it important to new businesses, startups, young people who may have seen it as their grandfathers, their dad's chamber of commerce, where they would get together and meet?

And we've we've got to we've got to meet the chamber's members where they're at or whether it's a small micro level business who's just getting their new start up or they're a medium or a large size scale corporation, we've got to be able to to find something that's in it for them.

Right?

We just, you know, rolled over another legislative session, the eighth rendition and every single two years.

Right.

There's always a new set of guidelines and regulations, whether it's new licensing requirements or tax exemptions in this case, that's going to be popping up on the November 7th ballot or other various, you know, restrictions or new mandates that, quite frankly, our businesses is busy out there trying to to maintain a living and and provide products and services.

You know, we've got to be able to provide that education and opportunity and information to them because they're not going to know about those those issues that pop up.

And what are your priorities now, post-COVID?

Because the brick and mortar stores across the country have been hit.

You represent those business people in San Antonio.

What are you hearing and what can you do for them?

Yeah, we still have labor shortages.

Obviously, it's inflationary times that the cost of doing business just costs more.

And we're also seeing changing consumer behavior as well, the proliferation of online shopping.

You know, individuals want to go online to buy products and services.

Is that sort of, you know, spacing out some of those small businesses.

So we've got to be able to address some of those issues.

Also, technology advancements, right?

Artificial intelligence is kind of the name of the game.

Do those small businesses have the the I.T.

resources to develop e commerce solutions to to develop those products and deliver it to consumers as well?

So obviously, trying to navigate an ever changing business landscape.

And North Side specifically and you worked recently at the San Antonio Board of Realtors growth, sprawl, traffic construction.

I was just out at 1604 on the northwest side yesterday.

You know how that is.

40 years ago, the first one of the first stories I did here was widening 1604 on the north side.

We're still doing it.

What is the chamber need in terms of construction?

What are you pushing for?

People might think the chamber is just for all growth.

Is that what you're looking for?

Unlimited ability for developers to put more housing where they want?

Listen, we want to make sure that restrictions are not disadvantageous, obviously, to the tremendous amount of growth and opportunity that is within not only the Bear County or the North Side of San Antonio, but also Greater Bear County in general.

But it's got to be responsible.

Obviously, we have dozens of people, new Texans coming across state lines to move here.

And we want we welcome them.

We also want to make sure that there's appropriate broadband infrastructure, that there's state highways that are being developed.

Obviously, we have the 1604 in Bandera connection all the way to high of 35.

It's everyone's favorite commute now in the mornings.

But you know all the as was individuals are bringing their their themselves and their families to Texas that's great but they're not bringing with them new water, new roads, new electricity obviously that has been maybe taken for granted in recent years.

Right.

So we just want to make sure that we have those things in place, that infrastructure in place.

That way, we can continue to have new development and sprawl, as you mentioned, across Bear County.

How do you work going back to the numbers of Chambers of commerce here?

How do you work with them?

Right now?

Two of them are without leadership.

Greater San Antonio Chamber, Hispanic chamber.

But how do you work with them?

And then tell your members you don't need to join them because you can join us.

We work with them.

How does that work when you're recruiting new members and also working together?

Yeah, I mean, we have to be able to differentiate ourself and be able to separate ourselves, the services, the products.

And I believe we've done that and we're going to continue to do that with our focus on leadership development, on membership engagement opportunities through our events or our mixers, other educational opportunities.

But then also we need to be unified in our and our voices.

You know, perhaps obviously with the same type of airport expansion that we've seen, there's been the conversation and obviously several efforts to get a direct flight from Washington National to San Antonio.

We're military City, USA, Randy, and we don't have a direct flight still.

So on much larger scale issues as it relates to dealing with members of Congress, with the federal government, we do need to work alongside our partners and the greater business community, not just with area chambers, other various trade associations of the like, because obviously we're going to be stronger with a unified voice and as opposed to just going about it on an individual capacity.

Well, thank you very much and good luck with all that.

Brett Finley, appreciate you coming in.

The president and CEO of the North San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

Thanks.

Thanks so much.

On Reporters roundtable this week, we are talking an election coming up next year, as well as the elections administrator right now and maybe a stadium maybe for downtown San Antonio.

Joining us to talk about all of that and more is Molly Smith, the city hall reporter, a city hall reporter with the San Antonio Express-News.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Oh, my pleasure.

First of all, let's talk about the mayor's race real quick.

It's not until next May, but we're getting an indication now of who is going to run.

Definitely who is probably going to run.

Where are we in that race?

Yeah, So the race isn't until May 20, 25, but there's a lot of chatter and buzz about who's name that next mayor.

I'm sorry, name is going to be on the ballot.

So we started reaching out to candidates whose names we've heard there is at least four current members of city council who are considering it.

You have John Courage, who says he's definitely running, Melissa Cabello, Harvard, who says she intends to run.

Many players still said she's considering it, but very much seen as a contender.

And then Adriana Rocher is someone who is also considering it.

And now you're also talked with Greg and Brock House.

Tell us about that.

You think so?

Maybe not.

There was a problem question mark.

He told us he was considering both running for District eight or the mayor's race.

Then a couple of days later, he said he's definitely not running.

So really remains.

But there's some businesspeople also that have been mentioned and there's a long time.

So we've got a long time to add to that growing list.

The elections administrator, Jackie Callahan, tell us where she is in terms of the pressure that she's feeling.

We talked to a couple of weeks ago about pressures all over Texas on a like all over the country on elections administrators.

Where is she now and how long she wants to stay on that job?

Well, she's facing pressure to retire ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

As viewers may remember back in 2020 after that presidential election.

The day after it, she told reporters it was going to be her last presidential election.

Since then, she's really not spoken publicly about her plans.

And there's growing pressure by voting rights advocates for her to stick to her word and step down and for the county to begin the process of hiring a replacement.

And is this somewhat political?

Because she had to, you know, open up the some people wanted to come in more to the office.

She said, no, you can't during elections themselves, there's a glass space.

We don't want that that sacrosanct.

Some people still said they didn't get the access.

Is that basically why, as they've said across the country, they want more access?

She's actually facing it from more of what we would call liberal or progressive activist groups like Move Texas, Texas Organizing Project, the Texas Civil Rights Project.

And their complaint with her is that she's just not not being as inclusive as she could be in terms of voting access.

There were a lot of complaints with her decision both in 2020 and then in the 2022 midterms to reduce the number of polling sites.

Top actually took her to court and they were able to get her to increase the number of sites.

And then there's been dissatisfaction shown over her reluctance to be even have a conversation about whether to have a polling place in the Bear County jail.

Do you get a sense of a timeline with her as to when she might announce?

No.

I mean, she told us last week that she hadn't made up her mind.

And so Judge Peter Psaki said he's going to talk to her after the November 7th constitutional Amendment election and get an answer and figure out what her timeline is and then go from there.

Judge Peterson kind of brings up the next topic.

We're talking about the stadium or arena or both or whatever for downtown.

Where are we on that?

Well, Jen Psaki is actually now kind of talking about it.

He he told us he's open to the idea with a big caveat, and that's that the side wouldn't be left behind.

And so he said he'll he's open to this idea of of a downtown stadium as long as the city, the county and the Spurs can talk about economic development for the east side.

And what about money?

Because that's the big issue, especially if people think that the money at the AT&T center wasn't getting them what they thought it was going to get them.

How much would a county city private deal cost taxpayers?

Do we have any idea yet?

Any numbers being thrown out there?

I believe estimates might be over a billion, but kind of unclear.

Depends if they want to do a NBA stadium and then a baseball stadium.

So no real kind of figures out yet.

What's the latest on where?

And there has been a lot of speculation over the months and a couple of years now where these might be still kind of question.

Mark and Sakai didn't talk about that as well.

No, All he's saying right now is that he's open to the idea, open to conversations.

But that's about as much as officials will say right now and the Spurs and missions.

Are you hearing much from them at this point or Western Urban or some of the other landowners?

No.

Right.

Because they don't want to talk about it as well, especially right now with the issue of how much tax money might have to go there.

And I know you're new covering city hall.

How is it so far?

Well, new it's been almost a year now, but how do you like it in San Antonio and how tough is it covering city council these days?

It definitely keeps you busy all say that.

Are you a politician now as well and you're running for council?

No, I'm not going to be on the ballot.

All right.

Well, thank you very much, Mollie Smith, city hall reporter for the San Antonio Express-News.

Thank you very much for coming in.

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

I'm Randi Beemer, and you can see the show again and preview shows as well as download the podcast at KLRN.org And we'll see you next time on the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele.

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