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Hi, everybody.

And thank you for joining us for On the Record this week.

I'm Randi Beamer, and we are going to be talking this week about everything from Hemisfair, the latest developments there to the drought in San Antonio, as well as voting and how you can get some help in terms of knowing what the candidates are all about.

But first, we're talking the Spurs and a plan to make sure that they stay in San Antonio, in fact, a bill that has been filed.

And joining us to talk about that, Congressman Tony Gonzalez of the district.

23 right here in South Texas.

Thanks for joining us.

And now up for reelection.

We're not going to talk about anything about politics except for this bill which you filed called the Spurs bill.

Tell us about this.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

Randy, thanks for having me.

Thank you.

Kaylor And for for hosting this.

Why this Spurs bill?

So I love the Spurs and many of us here in San Antonio.

We know Spurs are part of our identity.

Now, can you imagine a world where the Spurs aren't in San Antonio?

I can.

It's the reason why I filed this bill.

To help and to help encourage the Spurs to stay here in San Antonio.

You know, right now, the Spurs generate about $700 million in revenue over 41 home games this year.

It isn't even a concept already.

This year, they're going to play three games.

Not in San Antonio.

That's going to cost San Antonio $50 million This is why all this came up, because when there was talk of them playing, there was actually talk of them playing more games.

We're going to play one in Mexico.

Yes, two in Austin.

That's where I was talking to them.

Down the road, playing even more games because they want to be a regional team.

And that's where this came up.

No, that's exactly right.

And look, the concept of being a regional team sounds good on paper, but how does that help the city of San Antonio?

It does not.

Right.

So I'm pushing to keep the Spurs all 41 games here in San Antonio and the Spurs act as strengthening public's understanding for retaining sports.

That's what would it do?

What does that mean?

Right.

A few different things.

One it would ensure that if the Spurs are going to move, that they would give the county a one year notice.

Oftentimes you see these moves.

They happen in the middle of the night.

They love you.

And then all of a sudden you wake up on Monday and your team is moved to Oklahoma from Seattle to Oklahoma City.

So I don't want that to happen.

It'd be a one year notice.

The other part would be would allow the county and the city to be able to sue in for damages.

A lot of times these sports they get a lot of resources via tax incentives and otherwise arena incentives, financing incentives.

And if so, if you pull the rug from underneath the city, there has to be some repercussions to that, aside from what they may have already done with, say, a contract at the AT&T Stadium.

That's right.

I don't want us to ever get to a point to where we have to enact this.

I'll say, look, the Spurs are a wonderful partner here and in San Antonio and the region.

I love what they were doing when they were just in your valley.

You've Aldi's in my district I appreciate R.C.

Buford and the team going out there.

Pop and money was out there is really exciting.

So it's beyond money, but we have to make sure we here in San Antonio have to make sure that they don't leave and we can't do it by, you know, just wishing and hoping.

There's got to be some repercussions if they do.

People might wonder, is this just for publicity?

In terms of a bill?

Where has it been filed?

Where is it in the process and will it pass?

Look, I have.

It took me three months to craft this bill.

We didn't just put it on the back of a napkin.

We just recently filed.

We will work towards getting co-sponsors over the over the finish line this year.

And 117 Congress.

There's been 11,000 bills that were filed.

Less than 100 in the House were passed into law.

One of those is mine.

I take it very serious as a serious legislator, to get things over the finish line.

So, look, I hope we never have to use the Spurs act, but if we do, we're going to be ready.

And it brings up.

Are you risking provoking the ownership?

Have you talked to, say, Peter, John Holt and R.C.

Buford and some of the people about what you really want and what's your sense of whether they really want to stay or will stay?

You know, Randy, the best thing about this bill is if the Spurs aren't going to move or if they're not even thinking about moving, then this bill will not impact them one bit.

So it's it's a win win, right?

If they are thinking about moving and then it's going to impact them 100%.

So, yes, I work with the Spurs.

I work with the team.

I'll continue to work with them.

Look, just like everyone else, I'm rooting for the Spurs to go win 82 this season so we can get that number one pick.

But we need everybody to show up and fill that arena every single game and watch them lose one time after another.

And you said that you filed this because where there's smoke, there's fire.

You think there's some real push from Austin, do you think?

I've heard that there is just more big money people in Austin, even if it's a population that's smaller right now.

And so they would be able to support, you know, the club level seeding and that kind of thing for a new stadium.

Randy, there's a new billionaire moving into Austin every single month.

And the fact that it's no longer smoked it's already fire.

The fact that Austin has taken two of our games and Mexico City has taken another one of our games, we've already lost we the city of San Antonio, our people have lost $50 million.

I want to make sure that doesn't happen.

And one, I want to bring those games back to San Antonio.

Part of it is we as a city, we got to step up and we got to show the Spurs that we love them and we want them to be here for a very long time.

It doesn't just happen.

The other part, look, this is opening week.

I'm so excited I'm bringing my family.

We're going to be watching the games this week.

We're going to the arena.

My younger kids are growing up at Spurs fans like we love the Spurs.

We want to make sure they stay here forever.

What other kinds of incentives do you see down the road?

Because every few years you need to say update the AT&T Center.

They've done that over the years.

Should the county step up and doing that?

The city.

You know who else should come up with some money for that and commit to that?

I think this is part of the conversation.

You know, I really appreciated Peter Holt writing that letter a few months ago saying how much he's committed to the city of San Antonio.

That was special.

I'd also say we have to show love to the Spurs and show that we are committed to making sure that they're successful.

At the end of the day, their business, we got to make sure that they're successful.

It has to be a win win situation.

Well, thanks very much.

We're out of time.

But so when you go to the Spurs games, how are you going to root for the Spurs to lose while supporting the Spurs?

What's your cheer?

You always cheer for them to go into triple overtime and lose by one.

It's going to be interesting.

It's going to be a rough year.

Thanks very much, Tony Gonzales with the Spurs Act will keep an eye on how that goes.

Thanks.

Thank you, Randi.

We did get a little rain this week.

Much needed rain, but we are definitely still in a drought.

And that brings up water and supply in San Antonio.

To talk about that and some new pumping stations here to make sure we have water.

Should there be another climate event like we had a couple of years ago?

The president and CEO of SAWS, Robert Fuente, joins us.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thank you, Randi.

First of all, the drought, people just automatically wonder one of those questions how are we doing in terms of water?

You know, I can I can I water my grass and for how long?

And then what's the longer term outlook going into the winter?

We in San Antonio are very resilient and that comes from planning.

And the planning is just not what did you do the last couple of years?

It's what have you planned for in previous years and into the decades into the future.

So every five years, we update our water management plan.

Coincidentally, this year, we're updating it.

This is the fifth year but we are sitting very well in San Antonio as far as meeting the needs of our ratepayers for all of their needs, including industry.

Regarding this particular drought, because we have aquifer water that's now down, I was surprised, he said.

50% of our supply than Vista Ridge, there are water from the Bastrop area that's coming in at about 20%, plus some other supplies.

Yes, cumulatively we have nine different water sources, 15 different projects from those nine sources.

So we're very diversified.

If one particular source of water, for whatever reason, is not there, we can quickly adjust to some other ones for example, in the drought of 2011 to 20, 14 stores voluntarily stopped production from the Trinity Aquifer because we wanted to make sure that the people that use that aquifer were still able to do so and that we didn't use all of that water.

They're going into the winter.

You have made some changes in terms of pumping stations and generators to make sure that when the power went out, the water won't go out again.

And the only reason it did was because you didn't have power at some places.

Yes, as you know, water is very heavy and so it takes a lot of energy to move that water.

When the power went out, our pump stations could not move that water and so the answer is some backup generators.

A unique situation that we have partnered with, partnered with CPS energy is that we will install some generators, CPS Energy will maintain them and run them.

They are the experts at doing that and they are experts of selling that power so that power will be sold on the grid.

The revenue that comes in part of it will be for CPS energy, but a good revenue stream comes to source to actually pay for the generators so those generators only be used in the event of something like that winter storm.

You know, that's the unique thing about this is that they will be used according to when CPS feels it's best to use them.

Again, there are the experts, so there will be running the majority of the time and they will be providing power for CPS needs.

And when they sell power, we will get part of that revenue stream.

We've had some people in talking about some controversial plan developments up in the Hill country where SA's maybe providing the water, but not necessarily the treatment of the water or the sewage.

And so some of it will go down, say into a creek, but you're required to supply that water and then the developer can decide what they want to do with the wastewater.

Right?

A lot of circumstances like that, yes, because if if it's in our service area, we are mandated by state law to provide service, whether it's water or wastewater.

And the two service areas do not match 100%.

So if a developer comes in and they are in our service area and they want water, we have to supply water.

The the treatment of that water, if they're not in our sewer system, in our service area, they can treat it differently according to state rules.

So we don't have as much of a say so on that as a lot of people would want us to have know.

We don't have a lot of time.

But getting back to the supplies of water, you say down in the southeast area where you have some desalination going on, that's also where you store water in the aquifer.

And then there are different areas underground.

Yeah, three different sources in one place.

The only place the United States that has three different sources of water coming in one area are H. Two Oaks Center in southern Burke County.

You have the Wilcox Aquifer, which is brackish water.

We get water out of there, put it to clean it up, put it into our distribution system.

There's a separation where you have fresh water, the Carrizo aquifer.

We also get water out of there, put it into our distribution system.

But that's also where we store our Edwards water.

Our permit allows us a certain amount of water.

And if it's a wet year and we're not using it for our customers, we still point it out and store it in the Carrizo aquifer.

And that bubble just expands the more.

What do we put into it?

Well, this year, drought year, we took water out and hopefully we'll get some rain so we won't have to.

But I appreciate the update and come back and we can talk about more, more water and more rain.

Thanks very much, Robert Clinton, president and CEO of SA.

Thanks.

Thank you, Randi.

We have the latest now on a couple of big developments that are in the works down at Hemisfair.

One is a 17 story hotel and one is a 29 story apartment complex.

Both of those right on the corner of Market Street and South Alamo, where that civic plaza the Civic Line is going to be.

Joining us to tell us all about that is Andres Undu Ha, the CEO of the Hemisfair Park Area Redevelopment Corporation, or Hemisfair.

Thanks for coming.

In.

Thank you.

First of all, this is an area that we've seen just open for a while, but this is going to have three different big I guess you could call them towers.

Yes.

It's 17 stories.

What's in the works first?

Well, I would say that the civic park and the Northwest Island of Hemisfair is under construction.

And so if you've been anywhere near Hemisfair, you will have noticed maybe two to two detriment some of the fencing, poor construction that that that is occupying the area.

More of that is coming.

And the promise is that once we're done, you're going to love what's there.

And so the civic park is under construction and adjacent to the to the park, not on park, but adjacent to it.

We have three development agreements that are going through process of approval, HDR, historic design, review, consideration and then the developers are also through their funding cycles, just making sure that the funding is in place to to build this large capital investment.

Those, at least for this first project, took a little longer than you expected.

You'd hope to have the first hotel funded and done earlier, but now you're looking to at least have it done by 20, 25.

That's right.

When the men's NCAA comes to San Antonio.

That's correct.

That that's a new deadline.

All the agreements have been reset and they have been long in coming.

But we have fresh leases.

Everything's stood up for this next phase.

So with the construction of the civic park, the pressures on that, the adjacent development should proceed and we have three great development partners.

And the three projects include the hotel that is a boutique hotel branded a Hilton Curio Zachary Hospitality is the developer behind it, and they have been involved since the inception of this concept when they were first picked and a few years ago.

And that's the curved great hotel.

And it will face the Hilton, Palacio del Rio across South Alamo.

It will face it.

But it's across from the Hilton Plaza through a lot of the views are to the civic park.

So it's and.

Beautiful.

It's really in the middle of it'll be ringed by these other developments right.

It's still a big lawn.

There is a large lawn.

The the the entire park area at the civic park will be able to be used for large gathering events that could hold ten, 15,000 people in concert mode.

In fact, this is the stage that we're preparing for the NCAA March Madness in 20, 25.

So if you came in 2018 and you saw all the great bands that came to play for free at that event, we're going to have a retake of that with, with our partners in the basketball arena.

And then there's a 29 storey hotel being planned that will go to the Historic Design Review Commission this week and that will be facing the old Joske is built or across from the old Joske is building there on market and that will also then look toward.

The civic.

The civic park.

Yeah describe the parking because people wonder about parking and retail and what's going to happen and on those buildings just.

For clarity the building that is on Market Street north of the Civic Park and across the river you can see the jockeys right?

It's going to be a residential project.

You said hotel.

It's it's a residential project and it includes retail at ground floor and all of our buildings are going to have park activating uses at ground level.

So imagine storefronts, food and beverage, retail, entertainment, that kind of thing.

Something for everybody who's down and people in the in the apartments.

No offices, no, no dentists.

And I like my dentist, but I don't like visiting there.

So we're not doing that.

That's on the ground floor.

And then you have parking above that.

And then above that.

Retail is sparking on on the two projects adjacent to a hotel and then above the parking podium is a residential tower.

So the one that is proposed for Market Street is 29 storeys.

It's a high rise.

It complies with all the requirements and the zoning and the shade and shadow of the real three.

That is consideration of the Historic Design Review Commission.

So it's a big building, but it's compliant with the rules.

And, and so today, later today, we will hear from the commissioners about their opinion on that.

And between those and between all three of those that will be open space so you can get a glimpse of the Tower of the Americas.

It's not going to be three continuous pieces that block the view.

It's not going to be a private courtyard for private development.

The civic park is protected from this private potential, enormous in in that we have created through our Northwest Urban Design Manual, we have set the rules for development at Hemisfair, which include pedestrian connections by sales and larger plazas that not only allow the public flow into the public park, but it also preserves through self-imposed rules view corridors to the Tower of America, not only from the torch of friendship and the corner of South Alamo and Market, but also if you're coming from LA, we need to there is a way to connect to the park.

And you then you framed the view of the Tower of the Americas beyond.

And so we have self-imposed those rules just because of the greater good that comes from these perfections.

And then on the South Side, this is one that's later another 17 story development by David Edelman, the local developer.

That'll be down the road.

How do you describe that?

That that will also be a high rise that that is a combination of ground floor retail parking and then apartments above.

I would say that is important to note on that project that there is an affordability component.

So we have a workforce housing policy at Hemisfair.

So that development that includes residential and hemisfair must have a affordable component to it.

So so you will see just like in the 68 apartments which were that opened in 2019 and were built next to you and going to garden, the first phase of development at Hemisfair has 50% of its units at an affordable component.

And right now while there we're you'll see, you know, construction, but you still get down there to see you on iguana.

Where should people park.

Because that's always a question.

Yeah, there is a perception of difficulty for parking, but there are hundreds of parking spaces that are immediately adjacent to the park.

We have the Hemisfair parking garage in the 68, which is all for any sort of boulevard.

So just Google map means for parking.

It will take you to that parking structure.

We also have some lights next to the Magic Theater and in the new phase we are building close to a thousand parking spaces in these various developments.

So we are bringing in parking and building parking as we go.

Right.

And so it's part of the plan.

So don't whine about parking out there because in the Google stuff you get down there once you're parked, it's beautiful to walk around and discover.

So thank you very much and good luck with that.

Come back to let us know down the road where you are.

And that is Andrew is Andrew Ha, CEO of Hemisfair.

Thanks for coming in.

Thank you.

Early voting for the election actually starts this Monday.

Already you may have noticed from all the political ads on TV, we're getting down to the wire.

Joining us to talk about some of the races here in Bear County, this area as well as a voter's guide, is Andrea Drash, who is a reporter for the San Antonio report.

You put together a voter's guide that's on the San Antonio report Web site, and you didn't just list biographical information You did some, you know, with some of your insight and reporting as well.

Tell us about that.

So let me start by saying the San Antonio report is a nonprofit Nonpartizan news organization.

So our goal here was to increase civic engagement.

And we don't endorse candidates.

We don't do anything like that.

But this one is sort of to help our own reporting and to help voters learn about these candidates, because one of the biggest challenges about this election cycle has been how sort of not competitive these races are not viewed as competitive.

A lot of these races are.

And we wanted to have something about these candidates regardless of how competitive the race is.

So we went about sort of gathering some basic details.

What can we find?

Their websites that are social media.

We put together some little biographies on them.

And then also ask them for some basic information about their vision, for the role, their qualifications.

And we got back almost a heartwarming amount of responses that were really thoughtful from people all up and down the ballot.

It includes congressional races.

It includes state House, state Senate, the judicial races, which we got responses from almost all of those guys because those are races that are so hard for them to break through.

And very few people vote in them anyway.

They don't vote all the way down the ballot.

So this is what we thought would be an opportunity for very curious voters to learn something about all the candidates on the ballot.

And in Texas, for years, you could just push the Republican lever or the Democratic lever, not any more.

So those were some of those down ballot races may get a little more individual attention.

What did you find when you say you look at TV and you see a lot of publicity for a race, but it doesn't necessarily translate into that's a really competitive race or not?

Well, from our perspective and every newsroom is kind of judging which races you're going to cover based on perceived competitive ness and then the ads themselves.

I think right now we live in such a gerrymandered world in Texas, where on the congressional level and the state House level, even on the county level, these districts are drawn so heavily to favor one candidate.

But in some cases, there's money to go around.

If you're the state House speaker in Texas and you want to support the Republican conference, you're going to put some money into these races whether or not you believe they're truly competitive.

And on the congressional side, obviously, Republicans are making a big statement in South Texas right now.

You see that all the way up to Texas 28 with Kathy Garcia.

Whether it's a reflection of whether these are the most competitive races in the whole country or not, I don't know.

How about here in Barrow County?

I mean, the the main thinking is that.

Well, is Democratic is going to stay Democratic top to bottom.

What do you think?

So hard for anybody to break through above the top of the ticket.

In the countywide race.

You have Tricia Berry who joined at the last minute.

Had she not been there, wouldn't really have in a big campaign on the Republican side at all.

But down ballot you hear about the district attorney's race a lot.

There are a lot of judicial candidates running aggressive campaigns, but it's really difficult for anyone to break away from the top of the ticket on these kind of county races for Bear County.

If you're a Republican looking for your opportunity, this seemed like it should be the year a lot of these judicial races are dominated by Democrats or the spots are occupied by Democrats right now who are swept in in 2018 headwinds have changed a little for Republicans.

They're feeling less optimistic about their prospects all over the place.

And I think the kind of gender race is a good example that looked like a very different prospect when Trish Deborah joined the race than it did now than it does now.

And how about some of those judges race and the DA's race that you've covered.

That one is the spiciest, I think of all the campaigns we have going on right now and I think it's going to heat up even more.

And we haven't seen a lot of TV ads yet.

I think that is coming.

They're two very different candidates with very different visions for that role.

It's a message that Republicans have taken all over the country that is progressive district attorneys have led to higher crime.

And you see that playing out across Texas as well, particularly with these district attorneys who came in at the time that Judge Gonzales stood with their progressive approach to marijuana and low level crimes so it's turned into sort of, I think, one of the more interesting races we have to watch.

Well, I appreciate you coming in.

I'm sorry we're out of time.

I could talk politics for a long time.

Andrea Drudge, thanks.

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

You can see this show again or other shows.

Just go to klrn dot org.

Check out the podcast there as well.

Thanks for watching.

We'll see you next time.

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