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.

Thank you for joining us for On the Record.

I'm Randy Beamer, and this week we are starting with something that Bexar County residents are going to be voting on this fall.

One of the propositions, proposition A, which affects the stock show and rodeo grounds of the Spurs wanting to leave.

And Cody Davenport is the CEO of the stock show on Rodeo in San Antonio.

Thanks for coming.

In.

Good to be here with you.

So explain to us what proposition A is.

It's for, hotel motel tax and they call it venue tax, as well as a car rental tax to go for something.

One of them would be a stock show on rodeo grounds and are proving the county owns it.

Correct.

What are you looking at doing?

Well, basically the proposition A, you know, we have two propositions going.

Right.

So proposition A is taking care of the grounds which you reference down there.

The Frost Bank center.

And what I reference are east side grounds down there.

And where we reside and where we intend to remain.

Proposition A would be taking approximately 198 million of what we'll call tourism tax, to go into those grounds there.

And basically, I mean, for a lack of better terms, turn it away from being the concrete jungle that has been, the cold, unwelcoming feel with all these barns are just kind of built up around there.

Which worked through the times that we had.

But take us into this next generation of where we should be.

It'll allow us as a rodeo.

Number one, to make sure the updates are done inside of the Frost Bank center and the Joe and Harry Freeman Coliseum to bring them up to speed.

But probably the most important component of that is it would allow us to have some new facilities down there where we can go into what we have offered the county and what we're offering all of Bexar County is a San Antonio stock show, and rodeo is committed and is ready to go into year round operation.

I want to back up a little and let people know they might not know.

The county owns the land in the Freeman and the Frost Bank center, all of that.

And then they partnered with you and the Spurs.

When did this come about?

And the leases the Spurs have is up in 2032.

Yours is up in 2028 with the county.

And so you share that lease and with the Spurs leaving you have looked at going other places, I understand.

Well, possibly.

As a show we we look at all options.

We have to with the Spurs first came in and said that they were looking for a new home.

We have to explore all options.

We never want to leave the grounds there.

So it was a couple of years ago when the Spurs started exploring Project Marvel, going downtown.

That's when you first learned of it.

Correct?

We found that out and we had to kind of you know, introspectively decide, okay, well, where are we in this process now?

How's it going to affect us?

And that's where we came out with, you know, we said we have grown to a point that we are ready to take on or we want to expand, you know, our partnership and relationship with the county that's been so good since 1949.

We want to expand that and we're ready to go into year round.

Now back to your original question.

You know, the partnership and what we're what we're dealing with down there.

I would remind everybody that the land down there was donated by Joe and Harry Freeman to build that Coliseum on through legislation in 1949.

The legislation reads for agricultural and expo purposes, very important to remember the origins and the start of those grounds now and how, Joe and Harry Freeman, even us, how it even came about.

So the county owns the grounds?

A while back, you know, we've had a great partnership with the Spurs.

And I want to give full credit.

We would not be as a rodeo the size that we are now.

If we had not partnered with them and built the Frost Bank center as we know it.

Now, that.

Arena, people might think, okay, during whatever it is February when the Spurs have to go on the rodeo road trip, that's what they think of as the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, so that you would use it during that time.

There's a carnival there in the expo halls, but what would be year round there?

What could you keep it going with?

So we take over as you reference, you know, in the month of February, we take over the entire grounds.

We're busting at the seams for people to come in or around there.

They see it, they know that we're busting at the seams.

Right.

But basically, as we have continued to grow every single year, you know, I've had to constantly turn back what I'm going to reference industry partners out there, know what I'm talking about.

Theirs is say, cutting associations, wanting to come in and do a cutting, large team roping, even, you know, partnerships down in New Mexico where we could come in and do cha yada as kind of music competitions, things of that nature, all these Western industry not talking about rodeo, not rinse and repeat rodeo, but the Western industry as a whole.

So they're reaching out to us and they're saying, we know you guys.

We trust you guys.

Y'all are knee deep in the industry.

We want to come to San Antonio.

And we would like to put on, you know, these types of events with y'all as partners, this or that.

Be in the, Frost Bank center or is big enough to do that and multiple.

Multiple, multiple.

Then we could use all different sizes.

And now would you run the frost Bank center then and keep that going with concerts and all that?

Or who does that.

Kind of the county would continue ownership?

I mean of everything there.

But Cobb Coliseum Advisory Board, who runs the grounds on there for the county, they would take care of that facility.

We have offered the county to come in and pick up days inside of there to take the pressure off from the loss of the Spurs home games.

So we've offered up not just the rodeo, as we noted in February, but we've also offered up to expand the front side and the back side of rodeo as we know it now in February.

But to pick up an extra 20 days as well in what will reference the off season that year round component.

So who runs the state?

We have a lot of concerts that are now within the county be in charge of that.

The Spurs are now and they get the.

Revenue and so the county would be in charge of it.

Now.

They could they subcontract, you know, out to Live Nation or even SNY, which is you know, the Spurs could could they subcontract that out.

Sure.

That's on them.

They, they own that.

But we would take 20 days away from that.

We would sell produce.

And I understand also for the year round that you would have been compared.

Do you want to do the, Fort Worth Stockyards?

This is going to be something like that.

What would you change on those, the grounds where all the parking lots are?

I think the, the key component there is to create an identity down there.

So currently we have this three way partnership.

You've got the Spurs, you've got the rodeo and you've got Cobb County all three putting on different things.

We take February Spurs are doing things.

Cab's doing things well.

It was great in theory and it worked for a very long time.

But quite frankly the both the Spurs and the rodeo have both grown two sizes that it's gotten more and more difficult.

And inside of that triangle that I referenced, you create no identity.

If now what we're offering up is with the new facilities being built there and the ability to run the Western industry on a regular basis inside of there, then we can create an identity down there in those grounds.

Which would be what you talked about concrete.

Would we be putting in ground and wooden fences and old barns, that kind of thing or.

No, these are these are state of the art facilities that that like Expo Hall one up there.

It, it would be converted into a full on production arena.

It would stay a production arena year round.

And when we started this with the architects, you know, we started with, I need a production arena, that replicates the Frost Bank center in quality and ability.

But yet on a smaller scale, so that I can go out and I can compete with the rest of the nation to bring these things in.

Hotel.

Out of my out of my scope.

Of work.

I was going to say, what?

This doesn't affect anything around there are people might think, well, it's still like the Spurs.

You have to drive into the, you know, the Frost Bank drive.

And then people would leave.

What about outside there?

The county has talked about developing that.

But that's not under this.

No.

What what we're in the center and structure and rodeo is offering is to protect those facilities down there on those grounds, make sure that there's a anchor tenant there that's going to take care of those facilities down there, keep traction in there, keep people in there, keep that identity inside of it.

That's what we're offering.

Now, I will say, to your question on the surrounding area, the type of client or economic impact, you know, studies back all this up.

And these are real economic impact.

Studies are not something that we just project out there.

This is based upon data that is happening every single February.

The people that come in to the San Antonio Stockton Rodeo, the competitors, all that type of traction.

You know, they're staying there an average of three days to be there.

They're from out of San Antonio.

It's a it's a different type client.

And somebody going in and listening to a concert and leaving a completely different type of client.

So they would need to stay.

And then you'd have tourists that would stay in town.

But the city and county would be developing that area around.

And I always have talked about it, but it's not part of this proposition.

No, sir, not part of this proposition.

And out of San Antonio.

Stockton, what is the scope of work?

I will say I'm going to go ahead and say this, you know, out loud having because I live down there all the time, the greatest opportunity and our opinion resides on the golf course.

It's been brought up by George Sacchi.

And I'm not talking about the whole golf course at all.

I'm not Willow.

Springs.

Right across there is city.

City owns.

City on.

Floodplain.

They'd have to work on that.

You've got frontage right there.

That's out of the floodplain.

You've got just a frontage strip that is perfect.

Whether the city or the county or whoever does it, that's perfect.

And then you're overlooking this beautiful golf course.

You're overlooking the attraction there, and we'll have the people there, to go in.

But that's another story for down the road.

It is another story.

Cody Davenport, thanks for coming in explaining all that.

CEO of the stock show and rodeo here in San Antonio.

Thanks.

You bet.

Good to be here.

A new report is looking into the importance of water species up in the hill country.

Endangered species here to talk about that is a Celia Rodriguez who is with both the Hill Country Alliance and a researcher for the Defenders of Wildlife.

And thank you very much for coming in.

First of all, this is a fascinating report because it reminds us of some of the the life that is literally under our feet.

What did you find?

Yeah.

So this report highlights, the importance of indicator species and how they are, connected to us and our water resources.

And so some of the things that we highlight are their life history, their threat levels to extinction, as well as the science gaps and the nuances that are there.

And some of these species are, as you call what is an indicator species.

Yeah.

So an indicator species, it's an environmental barometer.

So it is pretty much like the canary in the coal mine so to speak.

So they let us know their presence or their absence, how well the water and their environment is doing.

So that can be water quality and that can be water quality.

Tell us about some of these species.

Fascinating.

Some people might have heard of a few before Texas blind salamander, but there are so many more, from here up through the hill country.

Yeah, so close to us.

We have the Guadalupe fat musket.

These creatures have the coolest and funniest names.

I think the most memorable.

A lot of people, when they hear about freshwater mussels, they know about the invasive one.

So the zebra mussel.

But they don't really know about the local endemic ones.

And so these mussels can filter 8 to 15 gallons of water in a single day.

And so they really do benefit us in a lot of ways.

Yeah.

People might think, well if there's, you know, stuff under there, it's polluting our aquifer or making it worse, organic matter, that's not the case in this case.

Correct.

Or if we look at our salamanders or same thing of as our blind cats, these, species, they have permeable skin.

And so they actually breathe through their skin.

And so any kind of change in water temperature, quality, it really is going to affect them.

And so if we start seeing a decrease in their population, that is going to alert us that something is going on with our water.

And these have been endangered for some time.

Do you have any idea about populations up and down and what affects it?

Yeah.

So for the salamanders there are an idea of the population.

And there's we're there's work around that for propagation.

Same thing for the freshwater mussels, for the blind cats, the ones that are found 900ft below in the aquifer.

Not so much.

There's a lot of science that still needs to be invested in on that part.

Yeah, I know the Texas blind salamander up in San Marcos.

They do some research and they do, as you said, propagation.

And they release those then into the aquifer to to help replenish the species.

Yeah, they'll release them into, certain river habitats.

But a lot of them are also just, safeguarded species in case, you know, the, the ones in, like, the aquifer and the cave systems kind of disappear.

It's it's just like, it's a way to have a population on standby just in case.

And what do you want people to do with this information?

There's a lot of information.

Great information in the report.

Yeah.

So one of the things, we've been kind of asking is, you know, conserving water, it just indirectly helps conserving habitat.

If you're a decision maker, you can use this as a guide to look into what the importance of these species are doing and how it kind of applies to us.

And it also talks about, you know, the science gaps that are missing.

So the places that where we need to kind of invest for these species.

And also, the recharge zones of the aquifer and the contributing zones, you want as much land as possible.

To stay unpaved and really in this pristine state.

That's correct.

So a lot of impervious cover when that happens, when we concrete over everything, it, does not soak up water as much, and it increases floods.

And it does not help with our drought systems.

And so any kind of, amount of land we can protect and create more greenways and protect that canopy is going to be best for these species.

And that also helps spring flow.

Correct.

Which is a whole different part of the, ecosystem.

When you looked into this, what surprises did you find because you've worked with wildlife for a long time?

Yeah, I think the research gaps, typically in wildlife, if you don't have fur, claws or feathers, you tend to get overlooked and you get missed a lot.

And so, although, you know what?

What didn't surprise me was, there was a lack of, funding, but it was still just the general, basic life history that some of these species we have no idea about.

Now, at the state legislature in the last session, we saw a lot about water, and they're spending a lot on water supply issues and infrastructure.

But the conservation, of water, making sure that it's clean, that wasn't addressed as much.

What would you like to see them do?

I think that would be probably the center point.

Using wildlife as, essentially like a highlight to kind of like move the needle forward when it comes to water conservation policy.

I think that would be great.

I mean, we we as Texans, most of our water comes from ground water.

And so naturally with, you know, the population increasing, we should be, you know, conserving as much as we can.

You talk about the science and how there needs to be more done.

I would think it's pretty expensive and tough to get into 900ft below the surface.

How is that done?

In some of these cases.

Most of the time it's through, groundwater pumping, well, pumping.

So there are pumps through, like U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Services that they monitor to watch when, you know, whenever groundwater is pumping and to see what species kind of come up.

And so a lot of the times, you know, these guys aren't found purposely, they're kind of found by accident.

And that's how they were first discovered in our aquifer.

And these are just species in our area.

I mean, endangered because literally they are found only in certain specific areas.

And how how tight are those areas and the endangered species.

Yeah, they're pretty dense.

I mean, in Texas we have the second highest biodiversity, in the United States.

And so we are a big biodiversity hotspot here.

And so with that, it's reflected in our species.

So a lot of them are very rare.

They're very cool and very unique.

And so you can kind of see by what they all look like cool.

Names.

Too.

Yes.

Yes.

Fat market.

The fat market.

Okay.

Yeah I'll look into that.

Some great information.

And the report is with the, through the Hill Country Alliance just out.

And you work with the Defenders of Wildlife.

Correct.

Thank you very much for coming in, Azalea Rodriguez.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

With an election coming up here in less than two months, Bexar County is now dealing with a big problem in voter registration applications and a big backlog of those that could affect whether you get to vote in the election.

Joining us now is Stephanie Cawthorne, digital editor of the San Antonio Current.

You've written a couple of stories now about this.

And this is thousands of voter registration applications that basically now are in limbo.

Why is that?

Right.

So when I first wrote about this a couple of weeks ago, it was at 34,000, voter registration applications that, you know, we're just we're just sitting at the county level.

And actually, since then, the problem has gotten exponentially worse.

We're now, at, over 45,000 unprocessed voter registrations, in Bexar County.

And, that is due in part to a backlog at the state level.

The Secretary of state's office, is having trouble integrating, with with our system.

And, or rather, we are having trouble integrating with their system.

And, we have had to kind of quickly pivot because our, our previous system went out of business and.

Just suddenly this year, and so we're left holding the bag, and now the commissioners have acted.

They want to change the system, but yes.

So they had a meeting, in early September, and, finally approved, a switch over to, VR solutions, which is more equipped to handle a city of our size.

Part of the problem is that the, Secretary of state's system, which a lot of the counties in the state already use, but they're, you know, population of 200,000 or less.

You know, that system is really designed for smaller counties.

And so it's not able to, to process the massive amount of data of a city of our size.

Like VR system.

So when they want to go to or vote tech, which is the one that went.

On, right?

Yeah.

So VR solutions, the one that we approved to use, is equipped to handle a city of our size and is more streamlined, more efficient.

However, you know, the elections administrator recommended this back in June or July, and they just now approve it, and it still needs to be ratified.

At the October 14th, Commissioners Court, which is already after the October 6th voter registration deadline, in order for your voter registration account, it must be in in by October 6th.

It must be processed.

They've brought on, nine temp workers at the elections administration office for voter registration processing.

They're going to be working around the clock to get these processed, but they're still in a holding pattern right now because the statewide system doesn't have a record of the streets of San Antonio, which is astounding.

Yes.

And so also when they, they.

Okay, this it wasn't that all the commissioners voted to okay, this, they wanted to go, Grant Moody, I guess, wanted to go with a different system that would have taken even longer.

Well, he wanted to go with team, the statewide system, which is what we are doing now as a stopgap solution.

Basically, he wanted to just go along with the rest of the state.

And, and I think also the price tag, might have to it.

Yeah.

At least at least a million, between 1 million and $2 million is what VR solutions is going to cost.

So that might have been part of why the commissioners court dragged their feet for so long.

But if they had acted when the elections administrator recommended that they that they switch to VR solutions in June or July, that would have potentially, given the, voter registration office enough time to implement the new system in time for early voting, which is October 20th.

Because I understand even when they start this in mid-October, the VR, AR, the systems, it's going to take a while to integrate.

And so you can't get that.

Backlog like, yeah, yeah.

And that's why they need to use team for the time being because, VR solutions, it's probably not going to be up and running until December.

And so it's just a little bit too late on, on all this stuff.

So I'm sounding the alarm because, you know, a huge swath of San Antonio is potentially about to get disenfranchized.

And just in time for the election, on the county's election, on the two propositions about the Spurs arena and development on the east side.

But there are also 17 statewide amendments.

Yes, yes, constitutional amendments.

Most of them have to do with taxation.

But also, as you mentioned, you know, Project Marvel is on the ballot.

And, San Antonio, this is their chance to have a voice in the matter.

And, you know, and some people might have that voice taken from them, and you.

Talk to some of those people about what how they feel now that they're waiting.

I guess some people have waited since July after sending in the applications.

Yes.

Yeah.

So I've been talking to this, 18 year old young woman who, registered to vote or attempted to register to vote for the first time in July.

She still has not heard anything about the status of her voter registration application.

And, you know, and she's hoping to vote in November.

And, you know, her mother contacted me and, and, you know, sounded the alarm about about her daughter because, you know, she's very engaged civically and, and so I, you know, included a quote from her in the, piece that I wrote that's more in depth than the one I did a couple of weeks ago.

Which is, live on the San Antonio Current now.

Do they have any estimate as to how they're doing with team and how they will do with VR as to how many of the how much of the backlog they'll get?

You said you thought it could go up to 90,000 by November.

Yeah.

So I spoke to, precinct Commissioner Tommy Calvert.

He shot a video explaining what's going on with the backlog at the county level and how they're unable to access the statewide system from when he shot it to when it aired, which was a span of one week.

10,000 more voter registration applications had come in in just one week.

Yesterday was national voter Registration Day.

So that's going to get way worse in in the next 24 hours, you know.

And, so he extrapolated that that influx, that rate of influx and said we could be looking at 80 or 90,000, for the backlog come October.

And those nine people brought on temps to work on this and integrating through team, how effective can they be since the team doesn't recognize streets?

That's a major issue, because right now, the Secretary of State's system cannot place voters in their appropriate precinct, because they don't have a record of the streets of San Antonio.

So, so.

Even things done by hand, they're not sure that they would be integrated.

If you're not in the system, you're not in the system.

And so, you know, if you can't place a voter in their precinct, you know, precincts determine who we can vote for at the at the state level, at the local level.

But also the congressional level breaks down to a precinct by precinct, you know, for each voter, if you can't place them in the appropriate precinct.

Those statewide elections can't.

Happen.

Yeah.

So so right now, they're, you know, they're at a standstill with the data input, even with the the, team system, because it's just not equipped to handle that massive amount of data.

You know, we're talking about 2 million records that they need to input into this system that is not designed for large cities.

Well, thanks for reporting that.

Good news.

It's going to be interesting.

And I know you're following this.

Yes.

And the San Antonio current digital editor, Stephanie Knudsen, thanks very much for coming in.

Thank you.

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

You can watch this show again.

You can watch any previous shows.

You can also download them as podcasts.

Just go to KLRN.org I'm Randy Beamer and we'll see you next time.

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