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 Beemer.

Hi, everybody, and thank you for joining us for On the Record, I'm Randy Beamer, and this week we are starting with the mayor of San Antonio, Gina Ortiz Jones.

Thank you very much.

Hi.

How's it going?

How is it going down at City Hall after the budget?

After the budget?

Well, look, I think there's a lot of lessons learned from that, from that budget and very difficult.

I mean, not surprising.

We've got $158 million deficit.

That's what we had going into that.

And that to me is a big red blinking light that we might want to challenge some of the assumptions that kind of got us into this situation.

So, I mean, I was very clear all throughout that months before that one, raising people's property taxes, period.

But certainly during this crisis would be my last resort, which is why you heard me for months talk about other other, other options for revenue, right?

Whether it be going out to community or whether it even be looking at, yes, previously kind of sacred cows, other parts of money to free up that stress on the general fund ready to work for example.

I mean how do we just done that?

I mean, frankly, we can start there.

Had we just done that?

How do we just move some of the eligible expenses from the general fund into the ready to work bucket?

We could have freed up 3.4 or $6.8 million over the two years.

FY 27 and FY 28.

We could have done that $158 million deficit to cut or budget shortfall to cut.

So it wouldn't have been a big part.

But are you saying that they weren't open to that kind of thing?

Just sacred cows?

Yeah.

There wasn't there wasn't a lot of receptiveness to to to doing that.

And I think we had to make the case right.

I think you had to make the case that one a property tax was needed.

And certainly then if to your to your point, if it was needed, is it the smallest that it could be.

And I in my mind didn't walk away saying that we needed a property tax.

I wasn't convinced, frankly, in light of what was still in the budget, what was left in there when you looked at, frankly, even after the $90 million in cuts.

So the budget, even with those 90 million in cuts, there was still 700 K, there's still a 700 K subsidy for Fiesta.

There is still a $2 million contribution to UT public health.

UT San Antonio's operating budget is $975 million.

They did not need the city's 2 million.

So let me just finish that, because I think it's really important when you go to voters, because voters should not ever question when they look at that budget.

Some some could say based on what's left in this, did you all really need that property tax increase?

Right.

And if you can't say that yes.

Then I think that's a hard sell for folks because let's let's be very clear as we're looking at the full gamut of our financials here, we raise the property tax increase to close the budget.

The other the other thing that we're looking at that may need to raise property taxes to create additional capacity.

Is the bond, right?

Yes.

So what happened?

If you could explain to people why the bond you had talked about a $600 million bond issue being voted on in May instead.

Now that's down to what, 400?

So right now it's 442 million.

And again, that's why you can't look at these things in isolation.

Right.

So for example in the budget, because we didn't make some of the cuts that I would argue were smarter allocations of money, we actually ended up issuing debt, $8 million worth of debt to do some minor infrastructure projects and council districts.

So our bond capacity was only 450 million going into the budget.

Now, as a result of issuing debt, because we didn't want to make some, I think, reasonable cuts now that now the bond capacity is only 442 million, what's going to be in that bond?

So we'll see.

I mean, that remains to be determined, right as we go through and look at priorities.

But what do you want it to be in that.

Let me, let me.

I want to.

Can we just go back to the budget real quick?

Because I think we can't look at what we had in front of us, the real opportunity we had in front of us.

When I looked at what was left in there, right in the budget, and again, I said, I'm not I'm not convinced the property tax is necessary.

That's why at the end, I offered, if we took the city's proposed staff cuts of $90 million and and we did a 1.6% reduction across the board, every department in FY 27, and then planned for a 2% reduction across the board in FY 28.

Our neighbors could have avoided a property tax increase for two years.

One of the people who supported a property or I'm sorry, the budget cut across the board 2% Mark white was critical because he said, you came in last minute.

Why do that?

After you floated a lot of ideas about how to cut the budget, didn't come up with the support, and then at the last minute kind of came in.

It was going to be tough for city staff to do that within 48 hours or so.

I never assumed I. So I think when you're looking at raising people's property taxes, you've got to look at the data.

Now, I understand some of my colleagues or some of my colleagues were going to be a no regardless, like and that's just a fact.

Right.

So talking points start talking points.

But I wanted to look at the data.

Look if the staff right who are professionals in this have made have have have looked at the data and said this is what we need.

Okay.

Well let's hear them out.

But let's also do what I did, which is go find other buckets of money to move some of these expenses into.

And it's clear we could have saved ourselves at least at least $18 million across the two years.

Right.

And then we can look at these.

So I mean, when we when what we also needed to do and I needed to hear is he talked about.

So to be very clear, they talked about no property tax increase for months.

But when asked to provide specifics, there were no specifics on how they would do that.

None.

None.

So let's be very clear about people's talking points and what they actually offered throughout this process.

And now going back to one more thing on the budget.

Talk about lessons learned.

You brought up a lot of things there.

You know, in the end you didn't get that support.

There was talk of toxic culture and culture of sabotage, and it seemed to get very personal.

Did Council learn from that?

Do you think going forward, there is going to be maybe a little more collegiality or support or horse trading, whatever you call it, to get somebody on board with this idea or that idea going forward, or is it going to be tough at the last minute because next year, you know, you hope it's not down to the last 48 hours or the last minute?

You know, what's what is surprising is this process wasn't is not was not different than it was in previous years.

So this idea that this was done at the last minute, that is the process.

There are amendments.

And oh, by the way, you could have been asking for questions all of the months prior, right.

So this idea of like, well, why did you wait till the last minute?

Well, why did you wait till the last minute to ask any questions?

What about.

So I think that's important.

And so this idea of like I mean, I can't I can't speak to how others are going to conduct themselves in the future.

I know I can control myself.

I'm focused on the people.

I was focused on the business.

And that's why all the ideas that I offered, you know, I think could have we had we entertain those things.

I think we could have avoided a property tax increase.

But you're on the same side ideologically with a number of people that voted against some things or rejected some ideas.

Do you have?

Do you think coalitions can be formed on the council to get people together on what should be on the bond?

The I think I think they have to be.

I mean, that's also our form of government, right?

You have to you have to you have to do that.

And so how we get there though, is always going to be based on our own kind of approaches and willingness to look at data, willingness to challenge assumptions.

I think, you know, focusing on the people and what's in the best interest of the people, though, should always be our focus bond issue.

What do you want on that bond for 441,000,442 million?

Yeah.

Well, look, I think we have lots of streets and sidewalks projects.

I said earlier on in this process, we should revisit those projects that did not make it on the 2022 bond.

Right.

And I continue to believe that because again, again, not separating this project from some of the other recent discussions that we've had, for example, extending the tours, I firmly believe that some of those projects in that, in that tourist, because the argument was, well, we've got to take care of them in the tours because tax increment reinvestment zone, because then that frees up capacity and the bond or, or you could just have those projects compete in the bond alongside all the other things that we think are good in our community.

So streets and sidewalks, parks and facilities.

But as you well know, I mean, that money, that one just given inflation and tariffs and where all those things are that 442 million is not going to go very far.

So it remains to be seen though kind of what the final list looks like.

What do you think will happen with infrastructure for downtown in the hemisphere area in the project Marvel Spurs arena?

Are you for that?

People have talked about $200 million for that as part of a bond package.

Well, I think, you know, there is the we should maximize all the things that can be paid for out of the SRC, which is the project finance zone.

Again, the state has allowed, right, as part of that, a three mile radius around those projects.

You keep all those those hotel taxes in that area toward, in our case, toward the arena, toward the convention center, toward the Alamodome and the associated infrastructure.

I think you maximize the PFC money toward those infrastructure projects, because the infrastructure bond is so small for the rest of the city.

I want to move on to a couple of issues involving Ice, the detention center here.

Still some people environmentalist I'm sorry, other groups have sued over that now.

And the the shooting in Austin.

Your reaction to both?

Where are we in the detention center process being built here and the fight by some against that?

Well, look, I mean, I think we're all very clear that we don't want this processing facility in our community, 1500 folks.

I think the lack of transparency, I think the lack of dialog by the federal authorities with local leaders on what is happening, the timeline, etc., does not engender a lot of trust.

There was a letter that went out a couple of weeks ago from the staff to the acting director asking for one.

We need the status of that environmental review.

We have not received the status of that.

We need to understand how you're going to comply with the city permitting processes, right.

Which you you which you said you would do.

We also need to understand how you are going to solicit and consider the people's feedback as part of this.

Those are three key elements.

So they have until the end of the month to to to provide those things.

And then the council, myself and the council will determine what we need to do.

But when you look at how other communities have fared just on the failing to meet the environmental review, you know, there's been some some legal success in pausing this.

Well, thanks very much.

Mayor Regina Ortiz Jones appreciated.

Come back soon.

I know you have some other things coming up in December to vote on as well.

Thanks, thanks.

If you haven't been to Brackenridge Park north of downtown recently, you may have not seen some of the recent renovations going on, some of the improvements they're working on here to talk about that is Chris Mitri, who is the CEO of the Brackenridge Park Conservancy.

Thanks for coming in.

Well, thanks for having me.

Tell us about what's going on right now.

If you haven't been there, even within the past six months, people might not realize you got a place going on, for one thing.

Yeah, we sure do.

We've got two active construction projects ongoing at the same time.

One is the Nature Playscape.

We're two months into that construction.

That construction on that $12 million, two acre facility will be complete in July of 2027.

At the same time, we're able to start the pump house renovation, which is part of a larger project that was initially funded from the 2017 bond as well as 2022 bond.

We're excited to launch that.

That pump house is iconic, been around since the 1850s.

It was in danger of collapsing.

We worked very hard with city agencies and the Texas Historical Commission to preserve it and protect it.

And so right now you'll see a dam set up in front of that.

And the work is ongoing both on on the river level as well as inside the venue.

When you say pump house, first of all, to kind of explain to people what it was, it hasn't had the paddle wheels in it for decades, but it took the water from the whole area and the springs to the north, air and Incarnate Word that raced down a raceway and it pumped it up to the botanical garden.

It was our water supply.

It was.

It truly was.

It was, as I say, it was the precursor to saws.

Right.

And that early water distribution system, which dates back to the early Spanish and colonial of Texas area, right, was the reality is George W took it and expanded it.

He was able to pump water uphill past the botanical garden that we know today and down into the east, and also pointed out to the west and to the south.

That's how he made his money, and that's how he came to donate so much land that we now know as Brackenridge Park.

And then it had a history after that.

I understand it was, you know, just north of what Lambert Beach, they called it there, or San Antonio went to swim and they they showed movies on the side.

Yeah.

Truly, truly.

In the 50s, 60s even in the early 70s, it was a recreation area, right?

It was a place where people used to go bathe.

Right.

And so lots of generations of San Antonio's would go take a bath in the river and go swim in the river.

And so it became this iconic backdrop of a real recreation area.

And there's kind of a ruins, I guess you'd say, of the bathhouse there.

Tell people what's going to happen to those and to the pump house.

What's that going to be sure.

Well, Brackenridge Park Conservancy is about preserving, protecting, but also enhancing Brackenridge Park.

So we love to see some of the history there.

And we're out there to to committed to making sure that we preserve the architecture that remains, but also building it in a new way, or modernizing in a way that today's citizens and of San Antonio and Brackenridge Park visitors get to use it.

So both the pump house would be an area for folks to visit.

They'll get some interpretive history in there.

They'll be an outdoor seating area and also the bathhouse.

Eventually we will make that into various small meeting rooms where maybe families can host birthday parties in the park in an air conditioned space in the summertime, because we all know how hot in the bathhouse that's in the bath.

Have a roof on that.

And eventually right now it's a it's a converted space without a roof, and it's a jungle gym.

It becomes a parkour space for a lot of the youth of San Antonio.

But eventually, I think we want to make it into a space that people could enjoy in 12, 12 months of the year and the pump House a venue, it could be it could be a venue, but it will also have an interpretive history telling the story of the George W Brackenridge waterworks.

And now this was held up for a long time because of the lawsuit.

And so it was part of the 2017 bond.

How much of that is going forward?

Now, I know you're facing a lawsuit that we'll get to in a minute from Native Americans, but how much of it is going forward right now?

Yeah.

So right now there's a small portion and that is the pumphouse portion.

It's preserving that 1850s, 1860s iconic venue in the park.

And it was in danger of collapse, as I mentioned.

But really, that's the only thing that's been released.

The Army Corps of Engineers, the Texas Historical Commission, the city has worked hard.

We've addressed it with the court systems, and we've all been given permission to move the project forward.

We did robust community engagement on this, and the city's aware of it, and it was important for us to preserve that.

We had a lot of donors that stepped up to commit funds to it to do it, and so we're excited about bringing that portion.

But that only represents about 5 to 10% of the project.

What about the rest of the project?

The northern section of the park there?

Yeah, there's quite a bit of issue with that is right now.

There is a there is the pending lawsuit that's still out there.

There is an opportunity for the plaintiffs to they've requested the US Supreme Court hear their case because it was rejected at both the Texas Supreme Court as well as the Fifth Circuit.

So they've asked the US Supreme Court to hear it.

US Supreme Court gets about 800 to 1000 requests a year.

They only usually hear about 80 or 100 or so.

So about 10%.

We're not sure if they'll hear it or not.

We don't think they will.

But certainly Brackenridge Park Conservancy in the city, who's the city is actually part of the lawsuit, not the conservancy.

We're committed to furthering the the important aspect of telling the story of the indigenous people.

And now what they're suing over.

Just for a little background, the Lipan Apaches group, religious groups as a sacred area there.

They don't want the trees taken down, and they want the sacred nature of that one river bend.

What do you or what's the plan to take down how many trees?

Some of them are heritage.

It changed over the years.

It has definitely evolved, and the city certainly corrected its lack of community engagement that maybe could be criticized that they didn't have before.

It's moving forward.

I think there's about only about 30%.

The original number.

Randy, I don't I couldn't give you an exact count, but I think it's far less than over 100, which was initially proposed.

I think it's in the neighborhood of about 20 to 20 5 or 30 even, and a smaller number of heritage trees, much more number.

I mean, and obviously the Conservancy doesn't want to see any trees remove.

But we also understand if you go look at that space right now, the river walls have crumbled, not just recently, but they've been crumbling for ten years, which is why the the voters approved this funding in the 2017 bond and also came back in 2022 and added more funding.

That area is in significant decay.

There's been a construction fence up around that space in the park right for five years, and it's about time we move that project forward.

San Antonio deserves a great park without too many construction fences.

Sunken Garden Theater, where are you in?

That's another long talked about project.

Yeah, well, I'm really happy.

You know, we still have to do quite a bit of work on it.

We did complete just this year in 2026 action plan.

It was an update of a master plan.

And we coined it action because we really wanted to come out of it with 4 or 5 projects that we launched.

Happy to say, Sunken Garden Theater was also funded out of this 2026 tours, right?

For $6.7 million.

There were some plans that were controversial, at least with the River road neighborhood.

How big is that theater going to be now, and are there different renderings?

Is it scaled down?

Yeah, right now it's just a concept.

We haven't done any renderings.

We haven't brought it to the community.

We will bring it to the public for feedback.

We will work with our River Road Neighborhood Association.

We will work with any other neighborhood association that is around the park.

The key aspect is we want that venue to feel like it's in a park.

We don't want it to be an 8 or 9000 seat amphitheater, which was its early proposition from 2022 2021.

We think it will be about plus or -4500 seats.

We hosted Taste in Orleans in Garden theater for the Fiesta event.

We had 5000 people there.

We've also spent a great deal of time this summer hosting a DJ music series called Disco Alfresco.

We average about 2600 people.

We handled both of those events without an impact to the neighbor.

One quick question since we're talking about Fiesta, is Taste of New Orleans going to happen next year?

Yes.

Okay.

Thanks very much.

Chris Maitre, CEO of the Brackenridge Park Conservancy.

Appreciate it.

Thanks.

Thanks, Randy.

On reporter's roundtable this week, with the election coming up, there's an issue you might not have heard about or thought of much yet the difference between registration of young people to vote and older people to vote.

It is quite striking here to talk about that as it affects us here in San Antonio.

Scott Huddleston, reporter with the San Antonio Express-News.

Thanks for coming.

Randy, what about high schools in San Antonio?

Well, across Texas, they are required to help students register.

But you found out they're not doing what they're supposed to.

Yeah.

And it's not the first time that I've reported on this issue.

Reported on it a couple of years ago for the presidential election in 2024 and found out there's this, this old law from 1983 that requires high schools to give age eligible students an opportunity to register to vote twice a year.

And so, basically, the principal or his, his or her designees is required to serve as a as a volunteer registrar and help age eligible students get registered.

And why isn't this happening?

There's just no enforcement.

There's no oversight.

No, you know, funding in the law to to enforce it.

And so the estimates from the advocate groups are that about 30% of the school districts and the campuses are participating.

And the enforcement, I guess, would have to come from the state.

Is there a political aspect to this?

Does the state not want younger people or state lawmakers not want younger people to register?

Yeah, one can imagine that there are some political undercurrents related to this, but mostly it's just a nonpartisan issue and development of of civics in the in the minds of young people.

There is a development by the state of a new civics curriculum, and they're on schedule in next summer 2027 to start training educators to teach that curriculum.

And it will include classroom modeling for democratic processes.

And hopefully that will include some instruction on voter registration.

And it's different for young people, maybe, than in other states.

You can't register online here, and you can't register when you sign up for your driver's license.

Driver's license for the first time in Texas, you're not allowed to fill out an application until you're at least 17 years ten months old prior to an election.

So, you know, with the October 5th deadline to register coming up in order to participate in the November 3rd election, I thought that this would be a good issue to explore.

We have a regular column called Ask an Education Reporter, and that usually involves questions from readers.

But my editor, Emily Donaldson, keeps me on a long leash, and I just thought it would be a good time to read this issue.

And the issue isn't just here in terms of Who's register to vote and the percentages.

How big a difference is it?

Yeah.

So in Bexar County, we're at about 35% of our 18 year olds are registered to vote, compared with 45% nationwide.

So we're below average.

But at the same time, you know, there's a lot of disparity.

Even locally.

You've got school districts such as Alamo Heights and Comal that are at 90% plus versus sized, for example, which is at about 18%, and the difference between younger people and older people nationally as well as here is striking.

Yeah, nationally I think ages 45 and over are registered at a rate of above 80%.

So there are a whole lot of, you know, middle aged folks that are that are registered.

And so the second time you get your driver's license or when you go to get it renewed, you can automatically or I guess at the same time, anyway, you could register to vote.

I don't know about that, but I think that it certainly isn't an automatic process the first time that you're applying for a driver's license.

What do you recommend?

What do they recommend in terms of the easiest way to register to vote?

Well, some place and get a card.

Yeah.

You're going to have to have some assistance because it involves, you know, proof of citizenship, proof of residency.

And then once the card is filled out, it has to be submitted to your county elections department within five days.

So there's a whole lot of you no ifs, ands or buts associated with the whole process.

But I think that it's really important.

The idea is that you want to engage young people early on to become voters as soon as they can, and help them learn from their experiences of voting about, you know, maybe I should have rethought that or, you know, just to be part of the process and to learn from it as they get older.

Talking with some of the school districts and again, you're raising awareness.

You did the story a couple of years.

How are they responding?

Well, some of them have really strong programs.

Homes.

High school has a math teacher named James Hamrick, who is welcome welcoming students to come into his class even when he's right in the middle of a lesson.

If they want to get a registration card, Clark High School, they do.

They go beyond just voter registration and actually do some instruction on discerning, you know, media misinformation and that kind of thing.

So and we're going to see some of that in this new state curriculum about learning about media misinformation and propaganda, how to identify it and do verification of facts.

And so if there are teachers out there who see this and notice that there's nothing going on at their high school, they could go to their administrators and say, I'd like to be a deputy registrar.

How do I do that?

Yeah, yeah, they can do that.

And the law is on their side.

I think that a lot of schools probably just have the registration cards at the front office and or in the counselors office, and they consider that to be compliance.

But that's not really following the letter of the law.

Is there a reason that we're lower than across the state?

Did you get any sense of why here in San Antonio?

Possibly because we have 19 different school districts that are each doing their own thing, and there's so much going on in the education landscape right now that this probably isn't top of mind unless it's like like we are now, like, two weeks away from a voter registration deadline.

That's right.

The voter registration deadline, October 5th.

That's correct.

All right.

I ask an education reporter, and I get the answer right there.

Thank you very much.

Education reporter at the San Antonio Express-News.

And so much more.

Scott Huddleston, thanks for coming in.

Thank you, Randy, and thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can watch this show again or any previous shows.

You can also download them as podcast.

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

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