Speaker 1: On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele do follow Speaker 2: San Antonio is a fast growing fast moving community with something new happening every day.

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Speaker 1: Hi everybody.

I'm Randy Beamer.

And thank you for joining us again for this week's on the record.

And this week we have a lot to talk about some of us, including children and a man who has helped make headlines here in San Antonio and make very tough decisions for decades.

Literally is judge Peter Sekai, who has decided not to retire, but is leaving his job district 2 25 court at the end of October.

And why?

Speaker 2: Well rainy at this point of my career, uh, I've gotten to the point where I have come to the realization, like all of us, including yourself, that you decide when there's a good time to move on and to get on a new path.

Uh, I think, and I believe that I've done everything I can as the two 25th district court judge in regards to children and families.

I mean, obviously we still have abuse and neglect in our community.

Don't know if that's ever going to go away, but I think I've done and set up a system.

That's a model, not only for our community, but for our state, our nation.

Speaker 1: That's what I don't think people really understand is what you have created here.

The different kinds of things, like what we call now, baby court, family drug court.

You try to get the people involved back together if at all possible, but with strict oversight.

And it seems to be Speaker 2: It's working Randy and what our community hopefully is come to the realization is that we can't keep removing children and putting them into a foster care system because you have a newspaper article, right with you that reflects that our week is failing our children.

And so what I've come to realization at this point in my career was to focus how to put children back with their parents.

And we created the family drug court.

Actually my predecessor mentor, judge John speech actually did that nearly 15 years ago.

And in the last five years I created the early childhood court, the baby court in which we were working with very young parents and children, zero to five.

And these are children removed by child protective services because of abuse and neglect allegations.

And what we've done is bring the community together and bring all the stakeholders that can provide support services to these parents.

And what we've help is, first of all, we teach these parents to be accountable, to take responsibility for the actions and deal with their specific problems.

And what's really different about these courts is that they're problem solving.

It's called restorative justice.

We figure how to focus on the positive and the strengths of individuals.

And once we do that, we've been very successful and returning children back to Speaker 1: Very surprised if they go down to the courthouse, I know, uh, from years and years ago, the old bear county courthouse you'd go to a courtroom, that's it, but on your floor there, or that floor where everything's involved, you have non-profits, you have people take a drug test so you can send them, get a drug test, know whether they're clean or not.

You have other resources where people can get the help right there.

Instead of just saying, go out and do this, go out and do that.

Well, Speaker 2: That's all part of the paradigm shift that what we want to do is help people.

And so when they come to court, yeah, typically it's there to be punished.

It's there to get to, you know, to plead guilty or be put on probation or go to jail.

What we've tried to do on our civil side is set up a system where if we need drug testing, we can do it immediately.

So somebody says, they're claimed let's, let's figure it out and hold them accountable for that.

If they're dirty and they're testing positive on their drug test, then we need to hold them accountable with an appropriate sanction.

Now, Speaker 1: Over the decades, you've been a associate justice or a judge.

I thinks it's 90 mid nineties.

Uh, you have had some very tough decisions to make, and that have informed some of your later decisions in terms of putting together these courts.

There was one of them where you had to decide whether a young girl was back with her mother or not.

You put her back, I'm talking about diamond, uh, Alexander, Washington, tell us what happened in that and what it, how it affected you.

Speaker 2: That's one of the toughest cases Randy, that, uh, I have had in my entire career.

And it was a situation which I made the decision to return a three-year-old baby girl, back to her mom.

And as a result of the placement of that child, the mom intentionally harmed this child and actually killed this child.

And so at that time it was one of those situations where I took responsibility for that decision.

I felt that it was, it was on me.

And what I did at that time in holding myself accountable was that I ordered a whole systemic review of that case.

And we came to the realization that everybody did the very best CPS was doing.

Its very best.

Casa was involved.

The attorney ad litems representing the child and the parents were involved.

Case worker were involved.

There were some, basically some cracks in the system about oversight.

And that's where the reason why early intervention baby court came into effect because we wanted to make sure that we are holding these parents accountable.

But what diamond Alexander Washington taught me, Randy, and what it made me a better judge was that this beautiful little girl taught me not to be afraid that I had to make tough decisions that decisions in placing children with their parents, with their relatives or putting them into foster care sometimes can be life and death situations and circumstances.

And a judge can never be afraid to make those decisions.

And that's what that little girl taught me.

You got to make the call because I did take a leave of absence because I thought I did not want to do this work anymore.

And so when I came back, I came back with more energy, with more focus and a realization that we had to do more for these parents.

Unfortunately, that mom is actually serving in life sentence.

So she's been held accountable for what she did, but that shouldn't punish all the other good parents we have in our community that just need assistance, whether it's drug and alcohol addiction, whether it's mental health issues, whether it's domestic and family violence, those are the three major problems in our community that really creates disruption and dysfunction in our families.

How do you feel that Speaker 1: Or programs here are being used as models across the state, across the country.

Now let people come here and visit and look at what you do and say, Speaker 2: Yeah, I will tell you, people will wide have come to see the third floor of the bear county courthouse because we took that 1200 square foot courtroom that we call the closet.

And we created over 10,000 square foot on the third floor with two full courtrooms, two hearing rooms, two conference room offices for the non-profits offices, for the, uh, drug lab offices for all the support personnel person care for the kids.

And we have a child protection room, which we can then put children and protect them.

And so that they don't have contact or exposure to the perpetrators Speaker 1: Conveniently, you have left us with not much time here to talk about what you might want to do.

What's next.

Now you're not, uh, you're not talking, retiring, retiring, sitting in the, Speaker 2: Um, evaluating my options and looking as to what my new path will be.

Uh, COVID-19 has taught me that I don't want to go home and Speaker 1: Wait a minute.

That Speaker 2: Sounds like a w a story right there.

You don't want to go home.

I'm not going there, Randy.

We're not going there.

But what I want to say is that I still have gas in the tank, so to speak, uh, uh, I still have passion and compassion.

Uh, I haven't been burnt out, so to speak.

It's one of those where I feel like I've done everything I can as a district court judge.

And I'm looking at all my options for my new path.

Almost Speaker 1: Sound like a politician there almost, but oh, you run for office Speaker 2: As a judge.

Yes, I do run for office.

And so yes, I, I you're trained.

Yes.

I have to go through this process of figuring out what's best for me, my family.

I actually got a second grandchild due any time now.

Wow.

So this is a good time for me to sit back.

Kind of take some time off re refresh re-energize and then figure out where I'm going.

All right.

Speaker 1: Well, thank you very much for coming in and thank you for all.

You've done over these years to judge Peter Sekai until October 31st.

Thanks.

Speaker 2: Thank you, Randy.

Speaker 1: Joining us now is the new general manager of the San Antonio river authority.

Derek bay started here in may, came from new Orleans and was here during the latest hurricane and got to see some of your, your handiwork, the stuff that you'd worked on over the last number of years work.

Uh, first of all, before we get to what you're involved in, uh, Sarah, how did that feel to see the flood control efforts that you worked on so long?

Hold up during Ida, Very, very proud to see my former team and the system that I, you know, was formerly in charge of, you know, do everything as they were supposed to and take care of the city.

A little bittersweet, to be honest, uh, I've told people, I kinda felt like a coach that got the team to the Superbowl, but then didn't get the coach in the super bowl itself.

Uh, so bittersweet as I, but I, my team did fantastic and, uh, Super proud people might be surprised that a man in charge of the San Antonio river authority would have a background in, in flood control, but then they probably don't realize just how much the river authority does, how, how long that river is and you have dams to, We do.

So we run, uh, as you said, people may not recognize everything that the San Antonio river authority does, but we run from here in bear county and, uh, oversee not just the river, but we work on all the tributaries here, but it goes all the way down to Goliad county, uh, you know, through Wilson and Carns.

And in addition to the health of the river, which, you know, we're going to talk about some more here, but also flood control and flood protection.

We run a series of 41 dams, uh, primarily here in bear county and then down in Karnes county, and then a lot of parks, uh, parks and recreational assets that either we manage and operate, or we work on in conjunction with our partners at the city and the county, For those of us who just go down to the river or river walk, we don't think about it too much.

How is the health of the river these days we've had different, uh, projects, you know, on the Southern starts of the river, wanting to make it more natural again, is it working and is it getting help?

It is working and getting healthier.

We still have challenges.

So in 2020, the river authority started using a base and report card to look at a series of metrics to grade the health of the river.

If anybody's familiar with the annual infrastructure report card that the American society of civil engineers puts out kind of the same concept, but we look at anywhere from swimability paddling trash fish habitat, a riparian, which is the land adjacent to the river, a number of factors.

Uh, it was a B last year and it's a B again this year for the overall health of the river, but unfortunately trash, uh, remains an F both last year.

And this year, uh, with last year, we took out over 150,000 pounds of trash from the mission reach alone.

This the most recent metric was 137,000 pounds of trash.

So trash is a huge, huge problem for us.

And that's just in the mission reach that doesn't include all the tributaries and other areas.

We maintain The trash event that people can help out with, I believe September 24th.

That's right.

Uh, so on Friday, September 24th, we're kicking off a trash campaign and trash initiative as part of a river symposium that we're holding.

Uh, we, we recognize the health of the river is tied in so many ways to a number of factors, but trash is a big, big deal.

And so we want to raise public awareness to improve the health of the river and all the tributaries.

So we're kicking off a full media campaign, uh, TV ads, print advertising, uh, wraps on via buses.

You name it.

Uh, we want people to be aware because something that, you know, maybe up in the north part of bear county, if somebody throws a cup on the ground, even though they may not be anywhere near a stream or a tributary, when it rains, it eventually will make its way into the storm sewer or into the river and the creeks itself.

And so we want people to be aware and do their part, uh, help us, you know, we clean the river, um, but also do your own part.

We've got an app that people can put on their phone called Litterati and they can, you know, take a picture of the trash that they pick up off the ground we're or we're encouraging awareness going to order, uh, have like prizes and such.

We're working with city council districts to get the word out.

It's a, it's a big push with bear county, um, city of San Antonio and our partner at the San Antonio river foundation.

And we're about out of time.

But again, another thing they can do is paddle the river, realize how important it is.

You have parks down south of San Antonio, that people look on your website.

They can find out more about how to paddle, how to get down.

There.

Absolutely a whole lot of information@sariverauthority.org or G not only about paddling our parks, the trash campaign, how they can get involved, uh, flood plain, you know, their flood insurance, a whole variety of insurance of information.

All right, well, thank you very much, Derek bays of the San Antonio river authority.

Thanks for coming in.

Thank you very much.

As I mentioned, a few minutes ago in the news this week, Texas children, and a longstanding lawsuit against the state about how foster kids are being handled.

A district judge, uh, made a decision to put off any rulings to end a hearing suddenly and force the parties to get together, to see what they can do to resolve things.

And we're joining us now, Tara Rousset, who is the CEO of S J R C, Texas.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Now you were on this meeting, it was a zoom meeting, long standing lawsuit against the state for how it deals with foster kids.

And what, what was it like on that zoom meeting?

When this judge said, all right, that's it get together?

Figure it out.

Speaker 2: It was a surprising ending, but a hopeful ending.

It is giving everybody in the state.

That's working with kids in the foster care system, a chance to come together and fix it for them once.

And for our, all our kids deserve better.

They deserve more, they need safe placements.

They need the community to wrap around them.

They need the community to wrap around the caregivers, the foster parents, the biological parents, everybody working for Texas children.

So we're hopeful.

We're optimistic that we're going to see huge changes in Texas Speaker 1: Long before this lawsuit, even 20, 30 years ago, there have been this problem with foster care in Texas, not enough foster parents, not enough placements for foster kids, not enough adoptions at least years and years ago.

Why has this problem so deep?

So ongoing, no matter how much money, it seems that the state is trying to put into it.

Speaker 2: Taking care of the most vulnerable children in the, in the state is difficult.

It is hard for people.

The trauma levels are hard to understand, but these kids deserve it.

They can heal.

If we're all working together, they can heal.

We don't want anybody to feel alone.

You know, if you've got a teenager that's been at eight, 10 broken foster homes in your home, it's tough.

It's hard.

And so, so often I think we're reactive across our state to just place the kids and then hope for the best.

And, and that doesn't always work.

It takes wraparound services.

It takes churches.

It takes community to, to really wrap around every single kid in foster care in Texas to make it successful.

Speaker 1: We're hearing of kids who have to stay in offices or hotel rooms, or be placed in a dangerous situation still to this day, because they're not enough places for them to go.

How is that going to be handled?

You think with what's coming up with this?

Speaker 2: Yeah.

So we all know that kids do not need to be sleeping in offices, raised in an office environment, but there's simply no other place for them right now.

And so there's opportunity for capacity building for safe capacity building that judge Jack and the hearing has given us an opportunity for the right people to sit around the table, to include the children, that we are all taking care of, to get their voice, to see where they want to go, to see how we can build programs that meet that meet their specific needs.

In addition, this is an opportunity for prevention.

Ultimately, we don't want any kids in the foster care system.

We want them to stay in their biological families if it's safe.

And so looking at ways that the community can wrap around the families that are taking that have their kids so that they're not removed.

Speaker 1: But if people are looking out there and say, well, you know, I can't take somebody into my home.

So this doesn't affect me.

Well, it does affect you, but also how can we help?

Speaker 2: Sure.

Yeah.

So not everybody can take kids in their home for a variety of reasons, but Randy, everybody can do something.

So what you can do is you can mentor, you can work with there's a organization called the three project.

They're always looking for mentors, big brothers, big sisters.

You can work with organizations like chosen to wrap around and help our kids.

Your church can take a family under their wing may be that is a family that's taking care of the kid, but you can bring them donations, cook their food so that they don't have to worry about that.

Mow their yard, do those things that help families be successful and really just build them up and be there for the hard times.

So we totally understand that.

Not everybody can take a foster child in their home, but everybody can do something.

Speaker 1: And it's unusual that a judge says this, you work it out and get together.

What have you heard since then about how people are getting together that are involved in this lawsuit and what they're working on?

Speaker 2: Yeah.

So DSPs is leading the charge on this, along with HHSC, getting together to looking at solutions, really thinking outside of the box, there is a new way to do foster care in Texas called community-based care.

So community-based care is an opportunity for the communities to stay together.

And our organization will be leading community-based care in 27 counties.

So what we're looking at is safe capacity, building, building up those caseworkers, building up the families that are taking care of the kids, looking at ways that we can bring services.

In another thing that was mentioned, as kids in Texas are going out of state for care, we don't want our kids in Texas to go out of state.

They need to stay close.

Exactly.

They need, they need to stay close to their home in their communities.

If we can keep kids in their school of origin, their community of origin, so that they don't lose education.

So it's going to take the community building together.

So those are the things that we're looking at.

Speaker 1: And one of the places that can get information is on your website as well on that is S J Speaker 2: R C texas.org.

Speaker 1: Well, thank you very much.

Terrorists set, CEO of S JRC, Texas.

Thanks for coming in.

Appreciate you Speaker 2: For having me.

Speaker 1: Everybody agrees San Antonio needs more affordable housing, but do you get there and how much should the city of San Antonio be doing in trying to reach that goal?

Joining us right now, Ben Allevo who is of the San Antonio Heron online newspaper and the, I have everything downtown San Antonio.

Thanks for coming in again.

I think you're ready.

This process coming up is for a big chunk of the bond proposal.

That's going to be put before voters in may.

How much, how much are they looking at spending on affordable housing?

Right now, the city is looking at a figure of $250 million to go toward housing.

And, and what that means is, um, they're proposing, um, some, some, uh, building of new housing, some restoration of housing that would be apartments and, um, and also homes.

And also with the client land banking, which means basically acquiring land for What are some of these projects.

Now they've done in terms of bond projects, uh, some housing related, uh, projects per war, but they're after the proposition in may the voters approved, uh, allowing them to spend bond money directly on housing.

This one's going to be a lot bigger, right?

That's correct.

So in 2017, the city put up a housing bond, it was $20 million.

This is significantly less than what, what they're going to be asking next may.

And that was more of an indirect, um, spending.

So basically the way that worked is the city spent money to get land ready for developer who could, who could then come in and build the housing, uh, infrastructure type costs.

And so that's money that the developer didn't have to spend on.

And so they can offer more cheap, cheaper rents and stuff like that.

So out of that 20 $20 million for projects for apartment projects have been re have been a result of that this upcoming bond, um, the $250 million it's significantly larger.

And the city, because of, because prop a was passed by voters, um, earlier this year, the city can then actually spend directly on housing.

If they wanted to, if voters approve it, they can actually spend money on building housing.

Um, that's And the projects that they could spend it on, those lists are being put together right now.

And the city council is going to get a look at them.

And then what a couple of weeks, Well, there's a whole process.

So, so the, the city staff, the, the housing department, um, they're going to propose a list of projects to the city council later this month, and then it'll go through a whole, uh, community process.

And so they're going to be these large committees made up of community members who are going to go through the list, edit the list, tweak the list.

And then that will go to the city counselor early next year.

And the city council will finalize the list, but we're talking about, you know, a number of projects.

The last bond was $850 million.

This bond, uh, city manager, Eric Walsh is proposing to be $1.2 billion.

So the 250 million for housing is just a piece of The overall bond.

And then the other could be, you know, streets and drainage and that The streets drainage building you, libraries, parks, that kind of thing.

And now there are already some critics saying they're worried about the direction that this, uh, the bond projects could go, that they want affordable housing to mean for those who say make less than 30% of the median income, instead of being, I guess, a little bit more The varied, the cities, the 250 million, $50 million figure is taken from the mayor's housing policy task force, which he, uh, convened a few years ago.

And so w what that task force said was that, you know, th th there's a range of housing needs, so not just 30% of the area, median income, but up to, you know, 60, 70, 80, that kind of thing.

And so the city is sort of taking that and, and the recalibrating, those figures, and, and this is very complex stuff, but part of what they're going to propose to the city council later this month is, you know, what areas should we target?

Um, and so, so that's one of the main things to look forward to.

And this was one of those things where they can get subsidies to builders who do this kind of thing.

It's not li directly they're going to build those houses.

That's correct.

So, so the city has identified, um, nine 90, 6,000.

Uh, the need is for 96,000 households.

That doesn't mean that the city, the bond is going to help pay for 96,000 actual new apartments or units, but that could mean, you know, more vouchers.

It could mean, uh, restoring somebody's home, that kind of thing.

And it's also going to mean months and months of fighting over exactly what those projects are.

Yes, absolutely.

Well, thank you very much.

Ben Livo San Antonio Heron the eye on downtown San Antonio.

Thanks for coming in and thank you for joining us for this edition of on the record.

You can see this show again, or previous shows as well as our podcast at dot org.

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