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 we are starting this week with something you've probably seen in the news recently about the airport, not just the new terminal.

They are planning a massive expansion, but also, some issues with one of the airlines there, Southwest Airlines, suing the city.

Joining us to talk about that and more is Jeff Coyle, assistant city manager.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thanks for having me, Randy.

Good to see you.

First of all, the southwest issue.

Southwest.

Maybe you want to back up the three terminals, a new one that they're planning.

See?

But southwest isn't right now planned in that new terminal or in terminal B, they would keep their old terminal, and they're suing because of that.

Take us through the process.

Right.

Let me.

I'll touch that and then back up a little bit.

It's a good problem to have because every airline out there is asking for more gates than they have today, and we can't fit them all in the new building, even though the new terminal is going to be bigger than the two existing ones combined.

We still need to make use of the entire footprint to be able to fit all the.

Airlines that is there that much bigger.

It will be bigger than bigger than what we have today.

Everything there.

So it will become the new front door of the airport, the new terminal.

But taking a step back, as you know, and you've talked about on the show, we have about $2 billion worth of plans for the airport, the new terminal, new parking garage and ground transportation center, improvements to the runways, roadways leading into the airport and those kinds of improvements don't get paid for from local property taxes or local taxes.

They're they're paid for through revenues generated at the airport.

And a big portion of that is from the airlines that do business out at the airport.

So we, about two years ago, started into a new lease agreement with the airlines.

They're essentially tenants of the airport.

And we set out to sort of change the, the, change the agreement to have it be a long term 10 to 15 year agreement, where all the carriers agree to the long term plans and vision that we have for the airport and agree to rates and charges that they will pay, that ultimately support all of that growth that we want to do out there.

So Southwest Airlines was the chair of the of a committee of airlines, which is an interesting dynamic.

You picture all these hyper competitive airlines sort of wanting to elbow each other out, but at the same time negotiating collectively with the airport on their business deal with us.

And to make a long story short, we have now in place a new agreement.

It's ten years.

It has a possible five year extension, so it could be up to 15 years.

And it represents a long term commitment from the airlines through their charges, through what they pay us to fund the big expansion that we've been talking about at the airport.

Now, southwest has been in the one the airline, the terminal that I remember covering the opening in 1984, thereabouts.

It was a big deal then.

And they have most of the terminal space there, but they want more than that, and they want bigger what they want instead of what you're planning.

Well, as I mentioned, every carrier asked for more gates than they have today, which is we're which we're accommodating.

Southwest has six today, and they want to move to ten gates.

We, we went through a methodical process that this industry standard to decide who goes where in the new complex.

And it's all done with a focus on how we balance the passenger load.

We don't want to overload any ticket, particular ticket counters or security checkpoint or curbside or parking.

And so the goal is to spread all of the 11 million passengers today that go through that airport, across the whole complex at the end of the day.

What made the most sense for the operations of the airport was for southwest to stay in terminal A, with the ten gates they've requested, but essentially moving out all other carriers.

So terminal A right now is 17 gates.

It'll be completely transformed to, reduced to ten gates.

Southwest ten, which creates a lot more room for larger seating areas, fewer number of people going through security.

We plan to pull security back.

You know, right now you go through security and you're right in front of, Smoke Shack.

We're going to back that up and create a nice big concessions area when we walk in, renovate the restrooms.

Overall transform terminal.

So won't be the same terminal a that.

But they still wanted bigger.

And now.

One of the arguments is that, for southwest, is that the criteria that was used wasn't what they thought was fair.

Right.

And what do you say to that?

Well, we use the same criteria that every airport across the country does.

We have a right as the landlord of the building to decide where tenants go.

And it was all done agnostic to the airlines themselves and focus more on okay, what are your growth plans?

How many gates do you want?

Do you fly international because the new building's going to have a new customs checkpoint, much better than what we have today.

Do you want to build clubs or lounges for your passengers?

We have very little of that at the airport today, and we have a mezzanine level in the new building that will allow for for private lounges for passengers of certain airlines.

So all that went into a formula to try to say, okay, what's the best mix of how we spread it out at the end of the day?

Southwest wants to be in the new terminal every airline wanted to be in the new terminal, and we just can't put them all there.

But we have an obligation to make sure the the airport operates most efficiently.

And that's what we've done.

So in the timeline of this, they wanted a temporary restraining order.

Keeping that lease from going into effect.

You say they were one of.

What is it now?

Nine signatory.

Well, there's nine other airlines that have committed to signing, that have signed off on the lease agreement that we've negotiated, and.

They have not yet.

Southwest has not yet, because they didn't like where they are being located in the building and the.

Signatory, the lease.

It means they get a little better deal than the other airlines that are not long term.

Not every airline out at the airport chooses to be signatory.

Some are not.

And you're right, they would pay a little more.

They don't get to share in revenues like a signatory carrier does.

But American Delta United V for idle booths.

Spirit Fedex, UPS.

And actually just last night Volaris which flies to Guadalajara, Monterrey in Mexico City said, hey, we want to become signatory to.

We have nine carriers who have said this is a good deal for us and we are on board.

We have one who at this point has said we're not going to sign and has instead filed litigation, as you said.

Where where are you now in that litigation?

You have hearings now scheduled.

They attempted to stop the agreement from going into effect on October 1st.

A judge denied that, they do have a right to move forward with their litigation.

And there are hearings set for mid December.

We're very confident that our process was, industry standard and easily defensible as the landlord of the airport.

And now they say, as I understand it, that they were told they would be in the new one of the new terminals.

Yes, that's been their argument.

Nobody promised anyone anywhere.

There was a process that all the carriers went through together.

Even if we even if someone did, that's not a, methodical, data driven process for assigning gates.

That would be a greater concern.

So there's there's a lot of irony in southwest saying your process wasn't fair.

Where you considered growth plans and our needs and had a balance passenger load.

But what should be fair is somebody told us so and therefore we should get it.

And that's not how we we operate it out there.

And I think at the end of the day, we'll we'll get there.

Will, will this affect the timeline for breaking ground.

You're you're looking at doing that later this year.

Yeah.

Hopefully not our, our plans right now.

We're we're waiting for environmental clearance.

You know, the federal government has to review the environmental impacts of the project.

We expect that hopefully any week now.

And we expect to to break ground within a few months.

And you are also going to have more parking.

Yes, in the new plan.

But let me answer let me finish your question before the southwest through its litigation, is seeking to stop us from moving forward.

So the groundbreaking, is contingent upon us continuing to move forward with our plans.

They want us to stop.

We don't think that will ultimately happen.

And yes, to answer your question, we parking is at a major premium at the airport.

We initially had plans for a ground transportation center with 500 new spaces, plus a place for V.A and, for villas, Green Line to tie in and Uber and Lyft and so forth.

We've since pulled that out of the project to do it sooner and larger.

And so now we're looking at somewhere between 1500 and 2000 spaces and and getting to work on that right away so that it doesn't follow some of the other projects.

Parking, parking, parking.

Oh, it's a big issue.

All right.

Thanks very much.

Assistant City Manager Jeff Coyle.

Appreciate it.

Thank you for having me.

Randy.

If you run a small business or have anything to do with one, there's help out there that you may not even know about to talk about it.

Here is the CEO of geekdom, Charles Wooden, who is also, in charge of another city program.

And it's called Launch Essay.

And tell us about this.

This is not just for startups.

I mean, we think of geekdom, we think of tech startups.

This is a whole different ball of wax.

Yes, sir.

Launch is a is supposed to be the first place that you go whenever you're seeking small business resources in San Antonio, no matter what stage of growth that you may be at, if you're aspiring to build your own small business, or you've been in business for over 20 years, if you run into an issue launch, I say is there to assist.

You can go online, submit a form to request assistance, meet with a business advisor, or just get connected to the plethora of resources that exist across San Antonio to help you through those difficult times, whether it be construction or grants that you're looking for, or you just need to find a good CPA launch, a say is there to help these small business owners get connected to those resources.

And this is a fairly new program the city launched.

Is a is it a pilot?

I mean, it's three year project year in year two now.

Yeah, just starting a year to launch, I say has been in existence for almost ten years now.

But it was formerly managed by lift Fund.

And then we just took over management of it, just this last year and hit a new milestone on October 1st, which is the second year of it, relaunched the new space, did some construction within the central library location, have a new logo and a new website for people to find resources, and an online tool called launch as a link for anybody across this city that is looking for those resources.

They can go through their own self-paced navigation.

But we also have, personnel for personnel over at launch.

I a there to assist any of these small business owners through business advising.

And if somebody wants to walk in, it is a central library, the ground floor.

And you doubled the staff?

Yes, sir.

Yep.

Went from two employees, under its previous management to now four.

And one of those is a dedicated business advisor that meets with founders and start small business owners, every day, really trying to assist them looking in their books, understanding exactly what their challenges are and getting them connected to those resources.

What are the main things that you hear from people with the small businesses they're coming in?

Do you hear mostly launching as it's launch essay like, I want to start a small business, or is it somebody who needs a loan?

Honestly, it's mostly people seeking funding, that ends up being the number one issue that you hear reported from small businesses is access to funding.

And that could come in a lot of different pathways, whether that be loans, as you mentioned, whether that be funding through venture capitalists.

There's a lot of different ways that you can get funding.

But one of the things that we found in the years that we've been doing this work at geekdom and now with launches, AA, is that a lot of that is surface level understanding, and you need to get really into the weeds to understand what the challenges are before you just throw funding at a problem.

What about brick and mortar businesses?

We hear, especially after, the pandemic, people getting more into online staying at home delivery.

That that's a problem.

We see some of the big stores anyway going out.

Is that an issue?

Absolutely.

I think with any small business, as they went through the life changing experience of the pandemic, they needed to modernize.

And it really highlighted some of those challenges that these retail businesses are struggling with.

And launch essay and geekdom are a resource to be able to assist them in modernizing how they do business, as you mentioned, whether that's selling products online, if they've never done it before, adding delivery to a restaurant that you may not have done in the past.

Those types of things are things that we see every day, through the work that we do.

Speaking of seeing everyday geekdom as base downtown long, you say, just a few blocks away at the library.

And we've heard over the past few years of the changing face of downtown and businesses, office spaces leaving downtown, is this helping some of those?

What do you see as a downtown business or resident?

Yeah, I think we've seen over the past couple of years, specifically after the pandemic, a really big bounce back towards what the downtown area can be.

And a lot of that is focusing around residential and retail businesses and restaurants right now.

We just had a new, pizza place open up on our first floor called Leo's, which is amazing New York style pizza.

And that place is packed nearly every single day that I that I go down there.

And now with the new opening of 300 main just a couple blocks away from us, you're starting to see more residential individuals walking up and down the streets, walking their dogs.

And it's really exciting to see.

I've heard that some people, see downtown in the future as more residential instead of all new hotels going into, some of the historic buildings.

Do you see it that way?

Yeah, I.

Do, I think, you know, from my perspective, in order to have a thriving downtown, you need to have three factors that's live, work and play.

I think we've really focused on the work for the past decade or so, which is why a place like geekdom occupies in downtown and you have other commercial real estate properties.

But one of the things that we didn't have a lot of was that live.

And now there's a large focus towards that.

You're seeing more residential projects opening up in downtown, but also the play component, as with the new, baseball field that they've been talking about, but also just attracting people to come to events like the majestic and so on and so forth.

There's geekdom, refer people that launch essay and launch.

I say refer people to geekdom.

Yes.

Different things.

Yeah.

I would say, you know, for geekdom, we're there for anybody launching a business or trying to grow it.

And so there will be certain times that we're assisting an early stage small business that maybe is not need in need of the programs that we have that help these companies really learn how to scale and find venture funding.

If they just need small business resources, we then push them over to launch to see where they can get better connected to that community, and then vice versa.

Those, aspiring entrepreneurs showing up at launch, say, and asking, where do I get started?

Geekdom is one of the very first places for them to be able to find the resources and a curated and guided pathway through the programs to build a scalable startup.

Geekdom has a place where they can do that.

If there are 1 or 2 or whatever, right?

Do they have office space or.

Yes, sir, we have five floor or sorry, four floors in downtown San Antonio, in the Rand building, about 50,000ft² of space.

And that is a mix of events space, co-working space for people to just come lay down their laptop, get to work, drink some coffee.

But we also have office space where these companies can continue to grow.

So we have a specific area called Startup Alley, where we have some of the new thriving startups within our space, about 2 to 4 employees really growing fast.

We have about 11 to 12 of those, in our space at any given time doing that.

But we've got hundreds of other, workers and startups within the space.

This next week.

You have something going on?

Yes.

At geekdom.

Yeah, we.

Have different than launch S.A.. Yep.

We've got a big program conference called San Antonio Startup Week happening from October 14th through the 18th.

And during that week, it is one of the best experiences for entrepreneurs, aspiring entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs and innovators to get connected to what's happening when it comes to startups and small business resources in San Antonio, I highly recommend anybody coming out.

We're going to have some big keynote speakers like Arlan Hamilton on Monday and Peter J. Holt on Friday, really talking about how they've succeeded in their endeavors in the past.

So this isn't just for people who want to start up their own small business and start geekdom or start there, but to learn something about whatever they need.

Yes, sir.

Yeah, this is for anybody who is interested in getting connected to that type of community and getting a little bit of energy and networking connections to build upon, whether that just be for educational purposes, whether it be as a corporation looking to innovate or whether it be as an entrepreneur looking to build the next big thing.

That's a geekdom cool old building in downtown Houston Street.

You can also go to the main library for launch and say, yes, Sir Charles Wooden, thank you very much for coming in.

Appreciate it.

Thanks for the opportunity.

On our reporters roundtable this week, we are not just voting on candidates in the upcoming election, but in San Antonio.

We're also voting on some Charter Amendment, and there is some big money for and against in these charter elections here.

To tell us all about it is Iris Demick with the San Antonio Report.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thanks for having me.

Now, you've written about, well, first of all, there's a variety.

There's, what, six charter amendments we're going to be voting on that include some obscure things, maybe cleaning up language from the old, charter amendments.

But what else are we going to be looking at?

Well, certainly the the one that's drawing the most attention is proposition C, which would remove tenure and, salary caps on the city manager's position.

Some other of the propositions, would make it legal for city employees to engage in political activity, which has been, illegal in San Antonio for 72 years.

Not on their work time.

That's not.

Their work.

Time, anyway, but off time.

They want to be able to do that.

Exactly.

To be able to exercise their, you know, their their rights to, to, endorse and local in elections.

And ethics is also one of them.

Prop a reforms slightly the ethics review board.

They'll be adding a definition of conflict of interest.

And and, and basically requiring that, that board gets the funding that it needs through the city's budget in order to conduct investigations and, and whatnot.

And raising the, council pay as well as the mayor pay some.

Not as much as they had originally.

Right.

So, yeah, we're not looking at, six figures anymore.

The salaries would be for the mayor and the city council would be tied to the area median income, basically.

But now back to, prop C, the big one, and the city manager.

And how long now he can serve now, or he or she can serve now no more than eight years at no more than ten times the the minimum wage in San Antonio.

Correct.

And right now that's, the lowest paid employee gets paid about $18 an hour.

So the city manager can get paid only ten times that.

That means his salary.

The salary currently is at 374,000.

Yeah, yeah.

And now that was because there was a big push and it was Cheryl Scully.

There was a very, acrimonious relationship with the police union when they had the contract and they targeted her.

Yes.

And and so Eric Walsh, current city manager, is kind of the recipient of that.

But there's a group that really is fighting that charter amendment.

Yeah.

The both the police and the fire union, came out against Cheryl Scully, in 2018 with these propositions.

There were three on the ballot.

This this one passed and so did another that had to do with contract negotiations.

We won't get into that.

But, but the caps were were put in place in 2018.

They didn't apply to Cheryl Scully.

Though she did retire soon after that election.

And the fire union, despite, you know, they had been in negotiations for a contract, until recently.

A lot of folks were thinking that since that contract was done, that maybe the fire union wouldn't get into this charter election.

But for the fire union president, Joe Jones, he said this is about principle.

They don't want to they don't think the city should overturn what voters approved in 2018.

And then, kind of on the other side of it, a very big group of business leaders and community leaders, have come out in support of proposition C. They argue that they want to be able to attract, the top talent across the nation in order to be city manager.

And with the salary cap, puts it one of the lower paid, city managers in out of large Texas cities.

And they argue with, what is a 14,000 city employees, a $4 billion budget?

You're not going to get a CEO, equivalent to a corporation like that to come in and do a good job.

Also, knowing that there's only an eight year term limit.

Correct.

But some researchers I've, I have spoken to this week, you know, noted that it's really a Cheryl job search for 13 years that's really atypical for a city manager.

The usual term length is like 3 to 5 years.

There's no term limits.

And any other city in Texas that I'm aware of.

So, yeah, the thought is really more about the pay, I think, because, you know, cities like Austin and Dallas, I think they pay have like $100,000 more than what we are currently paying.

And the council manager form of government is they could still fire him at any time.

Six votes and he's out.

So it's not as if there's no recourse if they don't like the city manager.

Correct?

Yeah.

The city manager is appointed by the city council.

There's their the city manager is kind of the day to day operations person, that carries out and implements the policies of city Council.

If at any time city council, a majority of city council feels that that person isn't doing that, then they have the option to to remove the city council and replace.

Do you get a sense and talking to different people about where we are, say polling wise in this UTSA poll?

Some people about this and they didn't really know a lot.

Correct, as an awareness issue.

And I think it's also at the very bottom of a very long ballot.

So really, I think, folks, the fire union and folks that are against proxy as well, people who are for it have a bit of an uphill battle in terms of explaining what this actually means to people, because often when you're explaining, you're losing.

Right.

But now the fire or police union years ago has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars.

They aren't expected to spend as much money this time, I would guess.

It's unclear.

I think it being so, you know, early voting starts soon.

October 21st.

It's, they haven't said how much or set a goal.

So far, but they do have, about $900,000 in their PAC fund.

But now renew essay on the other side that is for these, charter amendments.

Gordon Hartman of Morgan's Wonderland behind this.

They have some money to correct.

Yeah.

And their campaign has has set a goal of, $1 million raised and spent, before the election.

So we'll we'll see how that plays out.

So we're going to see that a lot on TV and radio.

I think you'll see it more on social media.

Like gatherings and awareness efforts like yard signs perhaps.

But the folks I talked to, with written USA didn't necessarily think that TV would be able to cut through in this presidential, election year.

Oh, well, there's a lot.

Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of TV ads.

Very well.

Thank you very much.

Iris Dimmick.

You can read everything she writes in the San Antonio Report.

Thank you.

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

You can see this show again.

You can download the podcast.

Any shows just go to klrn.org I'm Randy Bremer and we'll see you next time.

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