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 On the Record this week.

I'm Randy Beamer.

We have a lot to talk about.

We're going to start with a counseling because there's a lot going on at city hall.

They just wrapped up the budget.

But there's some other issues coming up.

You might have heard in the news.

We're going to get it straight from the councilmembers mouth here.

Mark White, District ten.

Thanks for coming in.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

First of all, you're looking at transportation oriented development plan for a specific project for the VA. Advance Rapid Transit first along San Pedro.

What are you looking at?

Making sure happens there with all that construction that's going to be coming up.

Right.

So before I even got into office, the city and the voters approved money for this advance rapid transit line that's going to run from about the airport down to the Brooks Transit Center.

And we got an office and we took a look at it and we said, how can the city best reap a return on our investment here?

And so we got to get a plan together.

And so what we've done is we initiated a CR which got four other signatures, the council consideration, so that it will go before the whole council.

That's right.

Which takes five signatures to get it moving through the committee process.

And we want our government at City Hall to figure out how we can best develop around that advanced rapid transit line in order to maximize our investment.

Because VA has their own plan, they also have an office there.

So you're working with VA, we assume, but what do you want to do in terms of do you want to have zoning?

Do you want to make sure that the businesses aren't affected adversely?

What what are you looking at in that plan?

Yeah, we need to make sure that people are actually going to use this v a line, right?

Because when you use the line, we we eliminate some of the congestion out on the roads.

There's a bunch of benefits to having people live, work and play along that line.

So we've got to make sure that our zoning ordinance is, you know, some of the setback requirements, landscaping, all of that is in line so that businesses can come into this area and develop housing, right, Both marketplace housing as well as affordable housing.

So we can get some retail there, some restaurants.

And so really people can just get out of bed every morning.

Right.

Use the line to get to work, come back in the evening, go out to dinner, shop, whatever they need to do right there on the air line.

Now they have, you know, plans for VA. And if you don't know what Advance Rapid Transit is, it's a dedicated bus line which has the right of way.

Basically, the street lights are are aimed for that.

You just get on the bus, you pay for it in advance.

So it's quick.

It's supposed to be basically like a trolley, but on wheels and crossed.

You know that area on San Pedro.

There are some businesses that are, you know, strip centers.

Some of them are doing better than others.

Do you have specific plans for that or are you talking with businesses that want to talk with businesses about what could go there?

There's no specific plans yet.

But one of the biggest mistakes that cities have made in the past when they when they do these TOD plans is they don't get input from all the different stakeholders.

We need to be talking with VA. We need to be talking to the different neighborhoods that the line is going to pass.

And we need to be talking to the businesses about what exactly they want to see for their specific area.

There's going to be about 26 or 27 stops along this line.

So we've got to get all the stakeholders together and figure out how best to develop.

What do you think of it personally?

Obviously, it was before your time there, but and what do you think of its potential?

I'm always wary, to be honest with you, about investing in in these other modes of transportation.

You know, especially here in San Antonio, where it's hot.

You know, do people really want to be walking around walking to a to a bus terminal rather than using a car?

But but I know there's a lot of traffic and that there is a lot of traffic.

And to the extent that we can help relieve some of that traffic, you know, that's that's one of the benefits of of Tod.

But for me, again, it's about making sure tax dollars are used wisely.

We've already decided we're going to invest in this.

Okay, great.

Now, how are we going to maximize the benefit of the air line?

Moving on to another issue that the city council is involved in right now is being sued over the Reproductive Justice Fund.

And first of all, to let people know what that is and how it came about.

Explain a little bit of that.

Sure.

So at the 11th hour, really, it was six days before we voted on the budget.

Some of my council colleagues introduced this amendment to set aside $500,000 for what they're calling a reproductive justice fund.

And what at least a few of them have said in the public is they want this money to go to groups that will fund out-of-state abortions.

In other words, somebody in San Antonio could get money from this for from one of these groups and travel outside the state of Texas if they want to receive an abortion.

Well, we would fund transportation there as well.

And that's, as I understand it, that the gist of what they want to do because of the ban on abortions in Texas and you think that's just outside the scope of what the city should do?

Absolutely.

And look for me, I'm pro-life.

I'll always will be under any circumstances.

But this should not be about my personal feelings on abortion, and it shouldn't be about any of my colleagues feelings on abortion.

This is what is right and wrong in terms of how we spend taxpayer dollars and vote.

And the vote on this kind of reflect that because it was 9 to 2 you were against.

And also, John Courage was against the the spending of the money for this.

But then the budget itself, you were the only one who voted against it because of this.

Well, again, I made a motion to amend to say that these funds going to the Reproductive Justice Fund, they can be used for women's health, but not to fund out-of-state abortions.

And Councilman Courage agreed with me on that, because, again, the role of city government should not be to fund this sort of out-of-state activity.

You know, we're there to to make sure the public is safe, to fix the streets, to fix the sidewalks.

Shouldn't be getting involved in the abortion issue.

Power money from CPS is another issue that you're going to be looking at an extra money from CPS where that should go.

Tell us about that.

Yes.

So you saw what happened at the end of the budget process here.

The city actually got more revenue than we expected from CPS.

And then it was a game of like Hungry Hippo, Right?

All my council colleagues were trying to grab, grab, grab, grab money for all these different projects.

Well, Councilwoman, have to put forth a proposal, another CCR, which said, hey, why don't we look at allowing CPS to keep some of their revenue rather than then giving us the full 14% like they are supposed to do now?

there's an issue with the software.

Write that down it down at CPS and they have really, really outdated software and they need to upgrade their upgrade their I.T.

systems.

So that they can better serve San Antonians.

Right.

They need a lot of money to do that.

Right.

So let's let them keep some of that money, invest in themselves.

Right.

Rather than, you know, City Hall and our council colleagues spending it on programs that, frankly, I've come to come to learn that we don't have any control over.

We don't have the metrics to determine of some of these programs are working.

Let's invest it in infrastructure for our city.

And when that comes out, some people are going to say, well, why don't you invest it in lowering rates, keeping rates steady instead of raising them, especially when we've had this heat and some of the other, you know, problems with rates going up at certain particular times of stress.

Absolutely.

And as you know, CPS is about to come to us and city council and ask for a rate increase.

And so one of the benefits to Councilwoman Havard is proposal could be that if CPS can keep more of their own money, maybe they don't need to come to us for a rate increase, maybe we don't need to raise rates on the citizens, or at least as much or so.

Which do you think the council would go for infrastructure keeping it with CPS or lowering rates, making sure the CPS uses it for that?

So for me, it's always going to be for lowering rate.

You know, rate increases are basically a tax on our citizens.

And I'm always going to be against that.

But with this city council, I think we're going to have a really, really interesting discussion coming up in the next month.

And I was going to say, what's in it?

What are the timelines on these kinds of things?

And when do you expect that this lawsuit on this is going to be ongoing on the Reproductive Justice fund?

But the talk, the transportation development plan and the CPS money.

So with the Todd plan that's going to enter the committee process here within the next month or two, and then hopefully within the next four or five, six months, we're going to be able to get a plan together.

The Reproductive Justice Fund, that lawsuit's ongoing now, right?

Unfortunately, we predicted it happened.

It did.

Now the city is going to have to spend more taxpayer dollars defending ourselves against that suit.

But we're going to have another discussion about where that $500,000 is going to actually go in the spring.

And in terms of CPS, though, that's probably the most imminent of all the three.

Right.

In the next month, we're going to talk about Councilwoman Havard as proposal.

And then in December or January, I think CPS is going to come and make the case for a rate increase.

All right.

Well, thank you very much, Mark White, District ten, for updating us on all of this stuff.

And I know you're going to be busy for the next few months, all of you.

Thanks.

Yes, sir.

Thanks for having me.

You might have recently seen the news about a new part of hemisphere that just opened for Jazz Alive.

But there's also a couple of big events coming up for that Civic park part of hemisphere.

Here to tell us all about it and what's next is Andres Andujar, who is CEO of Hemisphere.

Thank you for coming in.

Thank you, Renee.

For people who haven't been there, this new part of Civic Park or what they call Civic Park, what does that include?

The Civic Park, which opened less than a month ago to Jazz Alive, includes a large lawn that can be used for festivities, music, festivals.

But it's not out of the ground that we would have a kite competition or a Frisbee.

You know, it's a proper lawn for big enough.

It's large enough.

A couple acres.

It's it's large enough for that.

You can play a game of how many?

What's the crowd size you can get there for a concert of 10 to 15000, depending on density.

That's the design capacity for the civic park and then the rest of it.

You talked about.

I was down there last night and there are trees, There is water features.

That's right.

And you want to be you said the tree city.

And so this reflects that.

That's right.

We we are very proud of the existing tree canopy atmosphere, but also have realized and we have been told very clearly by the community that for them to come to hemisphere or generally anywhere in San Antonio, they would like to have shade and water as a place and a place to sit, have a place to sit, and if it's in the shade, that's golden.

And so the the amount of investment for the installation of mature trees so that that the canopy at the civic park, which used to have a building on it, the idea that we are bringing over 200 trees to the civic park is funded and partly executed in phase one.

Phase two will also include a substantial tree canopy that will go all the way from the corner of Charles of South Alamo and Market Street, across from the torch of friendship.

When you come to Civic Park, Phase two in the future, that corner is going to be a plaza sort of the size of main plaza.

It's a substantial entry point to the hemisphere district and it's going to be fully canopy and with hardscape plazas, it will allow celebrations of various types of 400 people or so in that area.

So you just broke ground on that phase two, part two, that phase two just started it will finish right at the end of 24 or early 25 and in time for NC Double-A.

But if people go by, I say right now South Alamo, you can't see and there's a fence and on market there's a fence.

But there are also going to be buildings along there.

That's right.

Tell us about those.

The the the idea for the hemispheric redevelopment started with the expansion and the improvement of the parks.

So we went from 6.5 acres of parks space that was open to the sky.

And now we have 19.

So we've tripled more than triple the commitment to Parkland at hemispheric, which was critical for an urban green oasis like this, to be sizable enough to be felt.

But adjacent to Parkland and the city has designated developable parcels that are intended to bring residents first retail offerings parking infrastructure.

Because without parking like shade and water, people are not going there or they are.

Yeah, and so parking is part of the equation.

And, and so in the end, the developable parcels we have contracted with three partners that are in various stages of progress in their projects.

And the first one is one that is already been discussed many times because it's been long in coming.

And the reason is because this things are not easy to put together and finance and nothing that has happened in the last two years was helpful.

The coronavirus being everything slowed with the pandemic.

But the the news is that the Zachary hospitality team has closed on all of their financing for the Hilton curio that will be named appropriately when Zachary is prepared to to talk about the branding of all of that.

But this is going to be a hotel right across from Hilton Palacio del Rio.

That's right on South Alamo.

And that's shorter than Hilton Plus.

Yeah, a little bit shorter, fewer floors, similar high floors.

And then the other building that's going to be along Market Street is what you call a mixed use.

It's a mixed use that includes retail, ground floor, including river access.

Not only river access, it's on the river walk across from the Ruth Kress restaurant.

So across the river from that will be another three four story building that is food and beverage.

And entertainment related to river offerings.

And then on the street level, we have a mixed use that includes a couple hundred residential units, an oversize garage to attend to not only the private requirements of parking reserved parking for residents, but also for the general audience.

That's coming to visit there.

A lot of people will wonder, okay, it's a city project.

Where are you in terms of timelines and budget, In terms of timeline, I think that over over there at the beginning, I believed and I would say this project can be done in ten years and a great time to see it as DIA de los Muertos.

That's coming up.

You're already setting up for that and a couple of other big projects.

We have several large events and I hope that your audience will make the effort to enjoy one of these cultural and entertaining offerings.

And the first one is Muertos Fest this weekend, Saturday and Sunday all day basically, it's an emotional and spiritual and fun event.

It's family day.

It's just I went into last year.

It was great.

Yeah, it's a San Antonio thing all the way.

It's great to see the progress of what's going on down there.

I can't wait for the next phase to do to happen.

So we have a little more so you don't have to go in and back.

But thank you very much for coming in.

Andres Andrew Hora, CEO of Hemisphere, always great to talk to you.

Thanks.

Thank you, Renee.

On Reporters roundtable this week, we're talking about election concerns and how that could affect this next year as we go through the primaries and the presidential election.

Joining us to talk about this is Stanford, now one of these San Antonio currents.

You are the owner or something like that.

I try to promote you.

Editor in chief.

Editor in chief.

Tell us about the story that you wrote about what's going on in Kerr County and concern to one of the commissioners push.

It's going to cost a lot of money.

Sure.

I mean, it's it's it's sort of been chaos in Kerr County, Right?

This is a county that we're 75% of the voters went for Trump, a very conservative Republican leaning county.

And you've got a commissioner there by the name of Rich Pace's, a guy who's retired engineer, moved to Kerrville from Ohio within months of getting on on the job, he became obsessed with this idea that we need to hand count ballots, that that election integrity is important and you're only going to get it if you hand count ballots.

And he has held pep rallies in support of this idea, tried to push the idea through and the concerns among a lot of other the other commissioners, many of whom are Republican, is that this is going to cost the Kerr County, you know, $250,000, basically to throw out all that old equipment, hire, train, etc., to get people to do hand counts.

And the you know, the hand counts are problematic.

Very few counties in Texas do them.

And those that do have populations, not numbers of registered voters, but populations of less than 10,000.

And Kerrville is growing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Kerrville has got 40,000 registered voters, so they've got more registered voters and these others have population.

What's the likely outcome of this at this point?

Well, one guy against the the others or.

Yeah, I mean he he's not going to let go of it.

He's been defeated so far in his attempts.

But the harassment, the, you know, fervor behind, you know, from his backers and his continued insistence that they're going to do this has led to different people at the county who have overseen elections to say, we're done with it.

No, thank you.

I'm going to pass that on to somebody else.

And as a result, you've basically got somebody new coming in who's going to have to spend, you know, as one critic pointed out, you know, a few months to try to learn what, you know, somebody else had had learned over ten or 15 years in preparation for the 2024 contest.

And that is a big problem across the state.

Absolutely.

For counties, not for the hand counted reason, but just because of the oversight and the criticism of what happened in the last I mean, reelection in a very highly publicized incident, Heider Garcia, Tarrant County's election chief and a guy who who's just revered among the political class, is really knowing his job, being very transparent, was getting death threats, was getting harassed by people who were, you know, who claim he was, you know, out to ruin Republicans chances of holding office.

And he departed it.

And fortunately, he landed on his feet with the job in Dallas County.

But the reality is, I mean, there's this hand counting thing.

It it would be easy to dismiss curb Kerrville excuse me, Kerr County as being sort of this news of the weird sort of thing.

But the reality is we have seen 16 different bills in eight different legislatures trying to introduce the notion that you can only have elections if you hand count the ballots.

The reality is that that's it's not a good system.

It's less accurate, it's less secure, and it's very costly because you have to hire a lot of people and train a lot of people to do it.

And that's not just DeLong here from The Current saying that.

I mean, you know, the consensus among people who study elections for a living and the people who who oversee elections for a living is that that it's it's a failure on all three of those.

Now, is that coming out of the Dominion voting system and the conspiracy that even though Dominion didn't have that many elections to oversee that, that that is why Trump lost?

I mean, some people believe that.

Yes.

I mean, the vote beat, which is a national media outlet that covers voting issues.

Natalia Contreras is the woman who wrote the stuff on the Kerr County.

I mean, she basically traced it back paces, did not dream this up on his own there Republican operatives and conspiracy theorists who basically presented him with the idea and he seized on it.

And like I said, I mean, this is this is there are other other states, other municipalities where this has really taken hold.

And I think this is a monster that the modern day Republican Party has created on its own.

Right.

You're familiar with you know, for years we've had state politicians at the state level saying we got to we got to rein in voting.

We can't have drive thru voting.

We can't have 24 hour polling.

We can't have we got to narrow the hours that Texas cracked down on what Harris County can do.

Sure, exactly.

Yeah.

And they pass this this massive bill that's now being contested in court.

Many people say, you know, the intent there was to make it harder for people who are likely to vote Democratic, i.e.

poor people, i.e.

people with disabilities, elderly people.

Yeah.

People who have multiple jobs, etc..

So, you know, so you have that which really I think introduced to a lot of Republican voters, this notion that elections are not secure, even though the preponderance of evidence shows that they are.

And then the other thing is, you had the 2020 election where you had the loser of that for that contest constantly standing up saying it was rigged.

And they were also having other election officials across Texas quitting or, you know, that experience.

People up in Fredericksburg also have moved on.

And some of those others even in in Bear County, the elections official is she was going to retire.

I think, anyway after this election, but she had gotten more grief.

Oh, yeah.

They're worried about the the oversight and whether people want to come in and and actually be in offices when they shouldn't be in offices and breach some kind of.

Yeah.

I mean, and one of the alarming things is the Texas bill that passed allows Partizan poll watchers you know to to basically walk in and monitor what's going on.

I mean, the reality is if you talk to a lot of these people who work in these these roles, these are long time civil servants.

These are not partizan hacks.

These are not people on of these, you know, payroll trying to to screw up elections.

But most of the ones I've spoken to are very serious about doing their job, being a trick, being transparent, and making sure that the elections run smoothly, which, you know, if if you read up on the research on, you know, hand counts is they're not going to run smoothly.

It's a much more problematic system.

And it's also a system, especially in a populous county where you may not get the results that night.

You know, by the 10:00 news, you may not even get it the next day.

You may not even get it for a week.

You have an election coming up.

So it's not a big one in November.

But in terms of what's going to happen across Texas and in Kirk County in the primaries in November, what do you look at there?

What do you expect to happen?

I think it's unlikely that the hand count will be approved.

You know, that the county commissioners are going to say, great, let's run with this idea, because there's been a fair amount of opposition to it.

But it is going to mean that the person who's inheriting you know, this role is going to have to pack in a lot of learning in a very short period of time.

And that's something I think, you know, voters in that county need to be concerned about.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Sanford now on editor in chief and long hair of the San Antonio current and editor in chief.

I'm actually okay.

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

I'm Randy Beamer, and you can catch this edition on any edition of On the Record.

Just go to the website KLRN.org You can also download the podcast there as well.

Thanks for watching.

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

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