 For those of you I haven't met. I am your friendly neighborhood district one city councilman Diego, but now thank you so much for coming to our Public budget meeting and discussion. This is our it's my third one and You know, I'll admit that when I ran for office the first time I was a very anti-establishment guy But I assure you that I have seen The discussion that we've had in settings like this become policy. I've seen money move from one place to another I've seen priorities change based on these discussions and your input and They really do make a difference and they provide Really really good guidance for us to figure out what to do with the resources that we have I'd ask that you be very candid that you be very honest that you ask all the questions you need to ask and you've got a tremendous amount of support and staff here to answer your questions and To even settle some debates to demystify certain things But this is a very important exercise for us and I take it very seriously. I know the staff takes it very seriously So Thank you so much for coming. It means a great deal to us We're also happy that you may have noticed that the original plan was to do it in four sectors of the city and As the guy who's responsible for the core wants to make sure that that we got our shot And so it's nice to see so many of you here. I'm going to pass the microphone to our City manager Cheryl Scully and then we'll watch a video with thank you guys so much and I'll be around for the entire thing. Thanks for coming Thank you councilman Okay, good evening. I'm glad to be here with you. This is our fifth meeting this week And it's our final meeting this week to gather input before we prepare the budget We'll use the information and the input we receive at our goal-setting session with the city council next Tuesday They have an all-day work session to talk about budget priorities And we share with them the information that we receive from these meetings So as the councilman said your input is very valuable. This is my favorite district. Don't tell the other districts that But I live in this district too So I'm I'm glad to be here with all of you this evening and I see a number of people who have come Regularly over the years, so we appreciate your continued support and input and some new faces too. So that's great Thank you for being here. So the way the program works tonight. We're going to show you a video that just highlights In a summary way the overall city budget what the components are income as well as expense and Then we'll have some instructions about what we want you to do at your tables to give us some input on Areas where we can make reductions in areas where you would like to see more emphasis within the budget so let's take a look at the video first and Then we will say a few things about our our program this evening And let me also just introduce the staff who are here So if you're a staff member sitting at a table We have facilitators to help take notes at each of the tables that our staff members And we also have a number of other city staff members from budget as well as executives here tonight I see both of our chiefs here as well chief McManus police chief and chief hood fire chief In the back of the room. So they're here tonight, too, and we're all here as resources So we'll kind of move around and if you have questions you want to ask us something about the budget We're happy to talk with you about it as well So city staff would you just stand up and so that everyone knows who you are and if they have questions You can pull one of us aside and those budget staff in the back of the room wave to Maria Villagomez Is right there our outstanding budget director? So we're here as a resource to you to answer questions that you have let's roll the video Then we'll have a few things to say about the budget and then then we'll take some questions and answers, okay? Uh-huh. Yes Yep 450 square miles Uh-huh good well we have them scattered throughout the city Yeah, well, that's why Councilman Bernal has the meeting here tonight. Yes Good well, we're glad you're here, but somehow you got to three this week, so we appreciate that as well. Thank you Okay Well, we do five before thank you Yeah, well, this is proposed budget. So what we do we take this input and We present that to the city council will present the budget we work on the development of the budget all summer and With the input we get from the council members on Tuesday at the goal-setting session I'll present the balanced budget to the city council on August 7th Then we'll go out and do another series of meetings throughout the community another five of these meetings throughout the city And then the council will consider adoption of the budget on September 11th So we have several more months of budget development and conversation with the community and we thank you for being here tonight Let's roll the video and then we have a few other Instructions before we get started The many services provided by the city of San Antonio are prioritized and funded through the adopted annual budget This video will provide you with an overview of the many services provided by the city and Explain how the city pays for these services with an annual budget of 2.3 billion dollars and 11,300 employees the city of San Antonio strives to provide you with high quality services every day So how does the city's budget work? The city's total budget is divided into separate funds including the general fund Restricted funds and The capital budget the largest of these funds is the city's general fund which receives funding from four major sources of revenue property taxes sales taxes CPS energy revenues and other revenues Property taxes represent the city's portion of the taxes you pay on your home and business However, the city's portion of your total property tax bill is only about 25 percent Sales taxes are collected on purchases made throughout the city and are dependent on the local economy CPS energy provides a portion of its gross profits to the city as a return on investment And these revenues vary based on the south texas weather Finally, other revenues represent funding collected from user fees licenses and Permits together these revenues support the majority of city services Two-thirds of the total general fund budget is allocated to the police and fire departments With more than 4,000 uniform personnel the police and fire departments enforce the law Protect San Antonio residents their families and their homes the remaining one-third of the general fund resources support critical city services such as streets parks libraries code enforcement health and human services and Animal care the city of San Antonio is facing a financial challenge of 27 to 34 million dollars in fiscal year 2015 in the general Fund Expenditures in the general fund are growing at a faster pace than general fund revenues The financial challenges that the city faces in 2015 Include the increased cost of providing health care benefits to uniform police and fire employees Maintaining a triple-a bond rating Maintaining a balance between public safety and other services paid by the general fund and the many needs across the city including street maintenance new sidewalks library services human services and the maintenance of city facilities in order to maintain a balanced budget in fiscal year 2015 as required by law the city will have to prioritize services and redirect resources in the general fund more than 66 percent of the general fund is allocated to the police and fire budgets If the community desires to maintain or increase the funds allocated to police and fire other city services such as streets parks libraries animal care code enforcement and health and human services would have to be reduced The city maintains more than 4,000 miles of streets more than 400 miles of drainage infrastructure and more than 1,300 traffic signals the maintenance and preservation of the city's streets and sidewalks is the responsibility of the city's Transportation and capital improvements department each day city employees work to preserve and maintain streets across San Antonio by filling in potholes as well as maintaining city drainage channels adding bike lanes and building new sidewalks the parks and recreation department maintains 244 parks 14,816 acres of parkland 145 miles of trails 24 outdoor pools and 29 community centers throughout the city San Antonio's 26 libraries provide residents of all ages access to books computers and educational programs through the libraries you can receive live homework assistance and download ebooks audiobooks music and videos for free The animal care services department is committed to improving outcomes for San Antonio's pet population through increased education adoptions and enforcement for the current fiscal year Resources were added to increase spay neuter surgeries enhanced licensing awareness and reduce the number of loose and stray animals as a result of these Additional resources and many other efforts by the animal care services department The city has been able to increase its live pet release rate from 30 percent in 2011 to 80 percent today The city provides code enforcement officers who work throughout San Antonio to maintain the safety and integrity of our neighborhoods These officers enforce the city's property maintenance code address concerns caused by unoccupied and Elapidated structures and help prevent and abate graffiti Other important city services are funded by restricted funds that are not supported by property tax revenue The rates and fees that support services paid by restricted funds cannot be used to pay for services in the general fund such as police fire streets or code enforcement services paid by restricted funds include garbage collection review of new commercial and residential development permits operations of the International Airport and the city's parking operations Ensuring that the fiscal year 2015 budget is financially balanced and reflects the priorities of the community is a collaborative effort between residents city leaders and city staff the city wants to know which services matter most to you Let us know your priorities by attending one of five community budget input hearings scheduled from May 19th to May 22nd you can also provide your input through the city's budget input box located inside libraries senior centers and online at www.sanantonio.gov slash budget with your assistance the city of San Antonio can continue to deliver high quality Services to all residents in our great community Okay, so by law the city of San Antonio was required to maintain a balanced budget So when we talk about a budget challenge going into the next fiscal year What we mean is that based on today's level of service if we were to do everything we're doing today in the next fiscal year and based upon the Estimated revenue that we're projecting for the upcoming fiscal year. We have a budget challenge of 27 to 34 million So that means that when I present the budget because I'm required by law to present a balanced budget That I'll submit to counsel some reductions as well as perhaps some revenue enhancements How do we manage the resources that we have available and maintain the quality service that we want over the past eight years? We've added nearly 500 police officers and firefighters We've reduced our civilian employment through attrition not with layoffs, but through attrition by nearly 1200 positions so today as compared to eight years ago We are doing more with fewer employees than we had eight years ago And yet think about that. We have more fire stations more libraries hundreds of additional park land So we're doing it by changing our business process and how we deliver that service to the community And it reflects the priorities of you that you give us input the mayor and city council tell us What they would like to see included in the budget we make the very best presentation that we can Incorporating those priorities and that of the entire community also taking into account SA 2020 we started off in this room and I see Daryl birds here tonight the director of SA 2020 in the community hundreds of people participated in the process giving input as to what's important We appreciate the work of all of our city employees and we are grateful for the work of our public safety personnel But you've probably heard a lot about and maybe read a little bit in the media about some of the conversation We're having what are fair and equitable as well as affordable to the taxpayer Compensation and benefits for all of our city employees. We want to be competitive But it also has to be affordable to the taxpayers And that's what we're trying to achieve Making adjustments because we all pay for health care and we need to make changes to ensure that we can continue To fund the number of personnel that we need for our city We're one of the fastest growing cities in the country and we know that we'll need some additional services for the growing Population we're now exceeding 1.4 million and to do that We have to make sure that what we're doing is in the best financial way For you bringing greatest value for the dollar paid the tax dollars that we receive So tonight and Maria. Where's Maria our budget director? She's going to go over the little charts on the table and tell you a little bit more about the process We'll take about a half hour to get your Conversation and then we'll have a report out at the end of the evening for you to designate someone at each of your Tables now one other thing I'd like to ask you to do since there's a staffer at each table to take notes For you you might start by having everyone Introduce themselves to ensure that those who are here for the first time have a chance to Contribute and give their input. How many of you have been to another one of our meetings this week? So almost half of you have come well just we have a lot of neighborhood association and social service and Public safety representatives and other associations here So just have everyone at your table identify themselves and if they're representing a group Let because then you'll understand the context of perhaps their input this evening as well So let me introduce Maria via Gomez and she'll give you some instructions about the sheet and then we'll get started Thank you Thank you. Well good evening and Now that you learned a little bit about the budget process and some of the financial challenges that we're facing for next year It's time for us to ask for your input so we can balance the budget for next year So we have an exercise at your table We can ask you three questions with the facilitator that you have at your table So the first question is to provide us with some areas that you would be willing to reduce in order to balance the budget So as you heard on the video we're facing a twenty seven to thirty four million dollar deficit for next year So in order to balance the budget the options that we have is to reduce cost or increase revenues So we're asking you for about five areas that you would be willing to reduce either Programs or services within the general fund that will give us some Direction as we prepare the proposed budget the second question is are you willing to increase? Some of the revenues within the general fund so for example property taxes It's about twenty five percent of the general fund revenues that we receive So for every dollar that you pay for your residence or your business the city gets about 25 cents for every dollar that you pay on property taxes The city has not increased the city property tax rate for about 20 years So if the community is willing to increase property taxes Let's say one cent that generates about seven point four million dollars annually The impact to the average homeowner based on the average homes homestead of a hundred and thirty four thousand dollars is Fourteen dollars a year that would be the impact again to the average homeowner So if you're willing to increase revenues such as property tax Then that would be something to to consider Other revenues within the general fund includes like our EMS transport fees our alarm fees Parks fees and some other user fees. So give us some ideas if you are willing Or we like for us to consider increasing revenues then the third question of the exercise is If there are some areas within the general fund budget that you would like to increase Or perhaps a new program Please provide us with those ideas since we mentioned that we are facing a financial deficit We would have to reprioritize within the general fund So as you come up with ideas on how to increase some of the new programs They also give us an idea. Where do we get that money from perhaps from another program that the community makes thing This is no longer a priority for us. Please reduce this and reprioritize the funding to another service So that's what we're doing tonight. We have 30 minutes There's a facilitator at each of your tables to help you answer any questions And I'll be walking around also to assist with any questions that you may have. Thank you Mr. Black here at table two had a question on how many times we have decreased the property tax rate over the past 10 years and that is three times Thank you Hi, how's it going? Diego Bernal, I'm the city councilman for district court. Can you tell me what just happened here? Well, we just had our budget priorities meeting where we invite the public to tell us what we're doing right What we're doing wrong and the ways that they'd like us to either see see us spend or cut money in the budget So we have a good year after that Where does all this information go after it's been collected? Well, I think that it goes to places first of all it's good for me to hear it because at the end of the day My colleagues and I have to make the decision So it's very valuable to me not just to get a report or a bunch of dots on a piece of paper But to have heard people talk about it and explain what their priorities are and then The staff will collect all the comments and Put them together and say well here are all the things that were talked about here The things that were mentioned over and over again here The things are mentioned once or twice and that way we can kind of try to put the data from all the meetings together figure out if we can If there's a sense that we can get from a city perspective or say well look on this part of town The priority was this but if you go over here, they were talking about different things And that will help us figure out how to spend money in either place Said did I explain that okay? Okay. So is this the first time you've done this? No, this is the third time I've done it Do you enjoy it? I do I mean sometimes it gets a little bit tense But but that's okay because you know my job is to listen and then take those comments and do something with them I learned early on that if I think I know best I usually get it wrong because there's so many people in the room There's so many there's a diversity of thought that Really the listening what people have to say and allowing them to talk about the main piece and the nuances You walk away with a really good sense about How they're feeling and what they want to see and what they want to be me in this case So if somebody wasn't able to attend this could they do to get their input in well They can always they can always contact the office. They can always call us or email us. They can Facebook me They can Twitter. I don't know how they would Instagram, but I guess there's a way to do it and Then you know There's there's some exercises online or there's materials online that they can access also and get that to us And there's a lot of ways to let us know And also sometimes I like the exercise I think it's important, but sometimes people just want to have a conversation about the budget They want to have a conversation about what's important to them and so again all those online means social media I do coffee with the councilman every other week practically at a eatery or a cafe around the district They can come to one of those and talk to me. They can come to office hours. I have late office hours from 5 to 9 p.m. On On Mondays so there's a lots of other ways so I like the exercise, but it's certainly not the only way they can do this I think that's it. Good. All right. Thank you so much for your time. Thanks. Thanks a lot Because we're gonna go by table and have you guys present Your recommendations we'll be trying to there's a lot of tables. We're gonna try to get through it Here's what I need. I'm gonna need a table to go first And when they start then we're all gonna have to wind it down so we can hear them. All right All right, let's start with table number two. All right, we're starting you guys Talk to people Hi, we had a lot of heated discussion But I don't want to say that we have consensus because I don't think we we do On most items, but I think there's we have a lot of questions One of the clear ones that people did seem to agree to would be to have some sort of a property tax increase As a revenue source other things that we'd like to look into are One executive pay To see if there can't be trims trimmings made there There's three categories that were listed on the budget that Add up to about sixty one million dollars But we're not even you know, there's just like one little paper with a lot of little print on it that May be able to get some savings out of that area and that's one that's called The Okay, I better use my own list One is non-departmental and that's 39 million agencies 18 million 651,000 and transfers nine million four hundred forty five 454,000 so that's that's a lot of money sixty one million dollars And we just like to have some group maybe citizens group included to look into that and then There is definitely, you know, we've kind of been primed to look at the police and fire things, but There's also the other Issue the police and fire costs, but there's the other issue of the city employees That have been getting a lot of cuts and there are 11,000 of them That see their salaries cut and they don't have the negotiating rights that police and fire do So we're not saying these have to be cut and these have to be increased But we definitely need to look into both so that we have people getting equitable salaries All right. Thank you guys very much I've heard the presenter for table four has to leave so I thought we'd go to table four to make sure that they can get in Testing okay, okay, what we figured here Under the budget gap for twenty seven thirty four really couldn't come out to an amount But we do figure under the economic development is to reduce the amount of the batements under corporate Industry and companies coming into the city of San Antonio We figure also under the executive to pay bonuses is to be reduced or staff be reduced also to be a fair at least Under the planning department basically is to reduce outside consultants save Attorneys for something for the city of San Antonio We figure why spend so much attorney fees while you got other attorneys. They're still liable here in the city of San Antonio Under the improvements we figure under streets is to increase the The improvement on the streets, especially under drainage and streets that need repairing Potholes and all and same thing we couldn't come up with an actual amount because we don't figure based on The streets public works how much it would cost the manpower the material that we're going to need Under fire and police we feel that it should be maintained regardless Through the out the city of San Antonio because of the professionalism. We need them regardless and under the libraries we were figured to increase the library fees and It's a Planning maintenance and all that books Library vehicles at least for the city of San Antonio and its public Now for the park fees we figured the same thing what I did last time was under the holiday Parking say for Easter or camping is to maybe have some kind of a fee adjusted to the Patrons who come to the city of San Antonio or want their tables at night when the the ban has lifted at least it's secured You mean like the reservation reservation parts are okay because if not somebody will say well I left my chair there and somebody says well, there's no name. Nobody then somebody comes along and takes it Code enforcement is basically the increased their fines same thing with animal care services increased fines also Basically for some revenue in between property tax we figured maybe a one cent Token to the people of San Antonio Like I said the same thing based on the appraisal itself since the city has not increased the taxes for the city of San Antonio for a while Real quick. Where's Maria a one cent Increase could generate how much revenue? $7.4 million all right And we had a question on Coastal toll lanes right now, but right now we figure some toll lanes are either if they go That's going to be between city and state. So that's still up in the air. All right. Yeah, that's what we got. Okay Thank you guys very much Table number is this Seven let's do it. How's everybody doing? Sure, we can answer the front. Okay, so at our table table seven we talked about Revenue and we did Aligning uniform benefits with civilian employees at 15 million dollars So our whole table was not at a consensus of that but the majority of the table was We had some interesting things about property tax one would be Aligning the the protest rate with that of civilians and that meaning that for these commercial high-end property property tax owners When they appeal their property tax and cost the city in our budget and put us through these sessions all the time That they could get a reduction or that they should have to sign something that says that they lose an abatement Or they lose some special privilege that they got if they continue to appeal their property tax over and over as well as With this property tax for for us all going at two cents Which would equate to 15 million dollars, right? And also with code enforcement to get down to some of the abandoned buildings downtown where folks are just holding on to these Buildings and they're not paying a good rate on them because they're not doing anything with them So they're appraised at a very low rate and therefore they're paying a very low rate in In taxes and the one thing I think that's something that you're pushing forward to Councilman correct So that is all this and that revenue Would be well over 30 with this and this being at 15 everything else would be gravy there, so that is That now things that we wanted to add With animal care who went to give Frank and John some help there at 1 million, right? Which would? 82 to 84 percent of our dog bites are by un Unnuded male dogs so to get them some spaying new to help At animal care for 1 million and the raise in order to pay for that would be a 33 percent increase on Defines and the different fees for the alarms when somebody has an alarm that goes off That's unwarranted right streets. This is a big one. I'm sure everybody's gonna be shaking their head on that but sidewalks Lights drainage particularly around this district around the 35 37 Little corridor here districts 5 districts 1 districts 2 districts 10 is what our table Really looked at especially the lights because of we all need you know We all need lights, but particularly in and in these districts to make sure that they that we get some help down there And then we would pay for that with the delegate delegate agencies a 20% cut as careless that if they're non-profits and they need to act as a as a non-profit and so let's Chop them down and that would save 3.6 million dollars the 20 20 percent cut Which could make sure the streets and sidewalks and everything are safe for our most precious residents To traverse the city, right and for libraries. We decided to leave those Leave those alone make sure there's no cuts out of the libraries and that is table 7. All right. Thank you guys I will say that that yesterday we rolled out the we gave ourselves in the public the first peek at our Empty and abandoned buildings policy which would apply not only to the buildings downtown But also to abandoned homes and neighborhoods you guys know in your neighborhoods if you've gotten it an abandoned home It drags the whole neighborhood down it could be used for all kinds of illegal activity So we're we're recommending and presenting what I think is the most aggressive Empty and abandoned building program the city has ever seen and is designed with both carrots and sticks to force people to do Something so downtown we should see some movement and to use a An unpopular term, but you'll know what I'm talking about It's designed to go after the empty buildings downtown and the crack houses in our neighborhoods It's supposed to do both this year as a pilot I mean once we do it pop you off to the budget It'll be a pilot will learn from the first year how to get it right on both ends and then we'll continue to roll it out But it is the most aggressive one. We've ever seen there's a few articles about it in the news We'll be talking about it again at B session Not not too far from now, but it's something we take very seriously and you should see some movement on that very soon But thank you guys for that Who's next all right, let's do it All right I'll stand here with you. Okay. All right. Thanks Basically ours is pretty easy. No, we don't want to cut anything. We would prefer increases everything from CRT for to cost of living Adjustments for city employees streets and sidewalks. We want to increase all of it for community centers Our ideas were to increase the property tax To add one to two cents to the hotel tax And to consider other revenue he suggested a lottery of some of the city property to divide it and Sell it off as a lottery, which would raise a lot of money. Yeah So a billion tickets and make a billion dollars on it. Oh, yeah So that takes her the crowdfunded. I I think that's brilliant. I love All right, so that's it. That's it We just want to raise money. We don't want to cut. Okay All right That's good. I One of the other groups said something that I just want to to to use for food for thought very quickly I'm not asking you to decide one way or the other but every once in a while we'll hear about People talk about cutting economic development incentives or incentives for businesses That are coming to San Antonio. I understand why you feel that way I don't think it's a bad argument, but I want to just play devil's advocate for one minute You guys know for right now the city of San Antonio is very seriously and aggressively pursuing Tesla motors Right Tesla motors for those of you who don't know is an automaker They make electric cars that look like Maserati's the size of this deal the size of the plant think of Toyota and double now We're competing against several other cities For this opportunity we are competing with other cities For these jobs. I can fix your street. I can fix your sidewalk. I can pick up some stray dogs I can remove some graffiti But if I can provide people in this town with a job that pays a very serious wage with benefits It's up to you to decide if it's worth it But I want you to understand the way there's another way of looking at that and so just a thought Right, I'm not saying to pick one way or the other but that's the way that some folks view it sure I'm not trying to get into a big discussion about it. I'm just pointing it out Because go ahead Right Sure the answer to all your questions is yes Sure, sure. I get it. Yes. Yes Sure, so for example The the question is do they do they have to give anything back and I'll what they give back are Thousands of jobs and let's say that we give Well, hold on hold on Let me talk to you about the way that these deals look now not all are the same but the way they look now is If I if a company is going to bring 10 jobs and we offer them some sort of incentive We say well, you're required to give us 10 jobs for this incentive If they only create five let's say we can take it all away if they create eight we'll say okay Well, here's the incentive worth eight and we'll take the remaining two back We've now set up these incentives so that there is equity in it We've set them up so that we have some skin in the game and they don't just take us to the cleaners So the way the deals are set up now they have to perform and if they don't perform We get some money back. I'm not advocating one or the other. I'm just making a point about the other side of this It's a you're competing for jobs Now who's next if they can't keep their promise they have to give her money back You guys ready to go Let's do it. Thank you young man. Who's not doing anything with a microphone. I'll do that My man a white is over here Thank you all for coming to this last budget hearing Each one of these has been different and interesting We write off on our general fund to balance. We agreed that We want to align everybody's health care and Take a look at everybody's health care. We also want to Deal with management and and freezing bonuses we are on The property tax We broke even we had one with zero two with two Two with one and the other person didn't vote so We agreed when you look at those numbers that we agreed that you could have a property tax increase Now our we also had the abatement situation We feel like we shouldn't give anybody a 20 year abatement Because it takes forever for 20 years So we would like if we're gonna give an abatement takes 20 years. It takes 20 years gosh, and in 20 years a lot of these people are going to be 90 but Anyway, so we would like short abatements. We understand that we have to give them something but at the same time we don't want to give them everything and then two years down the road they decide to move along and We lose that We lose the company a lot of times people you lose their jobs and can't find another one at that pay rate anyway Also, we have several other cuts that we would like to make We would like to increase the fees at the convention center We discussed Cutting the association dues to 50% not covering all conventions and not covering Every meeting that they seem to think they need to go to Most of us if your job calls for going to a meeting you wind up having to pay something on it We also Do not understand why we have the redberry mention and you may be able to give us more information and Instead of putting more money into it. I know that it's a rental property but Perhaps we're better off selling in it getting in the money because it's at a good location It's an interesting house and maybe we could make money by selling it rather than continue to every year Have to put money into this house and Essentially we want to keep we want to We want to have better streets That's a common and of course we want to have libraries and our last one is we need to take care of our pets So we want to maintain that That's it. Okay. There's a go spurs. Go spurs, right? All right, who wants to go next all right All right, so I'll start with what our plans were for cutting and for raising revenue Our table was also concerned with abatements in conjunction with making it easier for startups or small businesses To do whatever kinds of documentation they need to do through the city of San Antonio Someone came to our table and let us know that it was cut recently. So we just said more cuts Another one was aligning uniform benefits with civilian employees and we were talking about the Negotiations for that when it comes to their health insurance premiums so we thought that might be an area of cutting and then when we were talking about annexation for a Revenue type that was just a possibility, but we didn't put a figure to it since you we thought about Wanting to cover services for our current boundaries and then finally when it came to the property taxes At the very beginning they mentioned that one cent Would would raise some amount and we thought that three would be okay at the same time everyone at our table I think rents our homes. I don't think any of us own So we said three I need this one now Okay, then when we were talking about our improvements notice we have kind of an imbalanced one, but our conversation was pretty quick One of the primary service areas came with air quality and we thought of that based on the goal from SA 2020 Another idea we had was for a class that would support new parents For example, if I'm having my first baby and it starts to cough I may take it to the ER and that would be a lot more expensive than training new parents to say your baby has a cough another idea was with the south side investment and that's because Toyota is on the south side and other other business investments that are happening on the south side so we should also maybe consider services for a residential promotion there and then If we did get a new Employer like Tesla then it would be really important that our job force had the skills to support a business like that So they would not only want to come but they would be able to stay and sustain that kind of economic growth We also mentioned streets as being a one of our priorities things like being weather prepared for floods and freezes and And and then transit we put transit last Yep transit like roads and buses and stuff. All right about to ask. All right. Thank you guys Who's next? Thank you young man. That was good It's working hard. I will not stand next to you there Well good evening first off I want to apologize in advance table 11 Even though these were some of the smartest people that I got to sit with and talk with we don't follow directions very well So I'm going to tell you right now We weren't as specific as the exercise demanded. We were really our conversation really suggested that What was asked of us today might have been a little premature for where our minds were meaning, you know We think there's a different level of Conversation particularly for you all that are decision makers that are going to be at the end of the day the city council and others making these funding prioritization and spending decisions be thinking about what the priorities are that we set for ourselves as a community in the first place You can spend a lot of dollars on things whether it's a 2.3 billion dollars a year or 2.3 minus what the shortfall might be you can spend those dollars balanced a budget But that doesn't necessarily mean that we're actually going to get the return as citizens that we really want out of our community Just spending dollars doesn't really necessarily in and of itself amount to anything So we kind of talk thematically about focusing on our priorities as a community What are the things that are most important to us just as we all do in our household when you Decide the things that are most important to you They rise to the top and those are the things that get the attention and those are the things that get the oxygen and the resources and the Things that are less important to you still nice to haves, but less important those perhaps have to be deferred So that was one thought that we had which is really just to look at what priorities over the years We've set for ourselves as a community and focus our spending in that fashion. The second thing was as a Addition to that is are we being as most most efficient as we can be with what we wind up spending at the end of the day Is the return on the investment does it match does return match the investment? You know whether that relates to spending on capital improvements, or if you're talking about salaries for uniformed and non-uniformed Salaries and benefits for uniformed and non-uniformed employees who are working hard on our behalf is the cost that you're expending actually generating a Commensurate result that's something to really be thinking about and we don't know the answer to that now But is the cost matching the benefit that you actually want to get out of it We have to think about the city just like we would a business you spend smart dollars to get smart returns You don't just spend dollars and don't just cut indiscriminately and at the end of the year Realized that nothing changed whether you save 30 million dollars or not So this is a higher level conversation about setting our priorities as a community and then holding the city council and the city manager Accountable for delivering returns on that the other thing that they're attic. Yep Well, we also have to be clear about how we measure those returns How do we know when we've gotten I? Think that's also part of the conversation is that I agree we have to figure out if we've gotten a return on our investment But how do we know what it is? I think we all agree when we know we don't get it all right But figuring out what it looks like when we get it is also important now That's right with those are those are metrics and measurements once you decide what you want You have to determine what was what it is that has to show up or it'll satisfy you that you've done those things And that's how you can have the best conversation as citizens frankly with your public officials now I'm talking speaking for myself, but now I think that's when you can have the best conversation with your public officials because you said Here's our budget here are priorities here They're very specific things that we said as a community needed to show up and they committed that to us did it happen or did it not? That's a great leadership and guidance for them for us to give to them as citizens versus versus just saying did we cut? $30 million this year, but dang life's still the same. Do we add $30 million life still the same is education better or the streets better? No, that's not what we're saying. We're talking about prioritization. I know I said we didn't I told you we didn't follow directions The difficult part about what you're saying is as much as I enjoy it is that I would imagine that in this room The priorities are different. That's what makes the exercise so difficult Is that there are some people who agree? Maybe even depending on where they live, right? If they live in a place where the streets are fine, it's not a priority for them You live in a place, let's say closer to my house You know, it's an issue for some folks. It's the way we feed animals. Some people could care less about animals that's why when when we have such a Diverse group of people there has to be some way to to marshal the conversation. It's difficult and Maybe that's where the tough choices are right by saying look We think as the city the biggest bang for a buck the hardest call is this but let's see what the world looks like afterwards But I agree that standing in place spinning our wheels Isn't good for anybody. I would argue however that Past four or five years if you took a snapshot of San Antonio five years ago a snapshot of the city today They're different. And so I think that maybe Just to add some substance to it would be to say Do we like what's happened so far and are we moving in a direction that we need to veer away from I know that we've had a lot of conversations about Gentrification and affordable housing and you know the city is moving. Maybe the question is do we like the direction? It's going does that make sense because I need as the as the decision-maker as the person who pushes the button I need direction. I need to know yay or nay on something because that We we can't put more on them. We can't we can't I could not Say I want to get paid like this colleague. I can't because she gets paid for what for what she She doesn't Take me with the officers. I can't say that the people in the city should get in with the officers But they're speaking different you cannot compare them. Well, I think that those are the ones you put out there What you're saying makes a lot of sense in that And I agree that there are some parts of town in particular where it does seem like they're standing in place where it does seem like Maybe we're not making the gains we need to it might also be that some of the other parts of town That are kind of doing okay have to agree and allow us To take some of those resources and double down on those areas in other words. This is my own thing I can't speak for my colleagues Darrell. I'm sorry but you led to it Your fault In many ways our city policies are set up so the different parts of town get Roughly the same amount of money Which is fine But I'd also argue that there are some parts of town that have more need in terms of infrastructure or parks Than others and so we may need to at some point to make a collective decision That we're not going to be resigned to allowing the areas you're talking about To stay where they are that we need to double down and try to really move the needle forward That's but that substance Anyway, sorry, I'm I just agree with that 100% and Didn't mean to take us down that rabbit trail But this is a this is one city when we are divided up into these and these Imaginary lines which say district one and district two and district three But I don't remember the last time I was traveling outside of this city and somebody asked me where I was from and I said district one in San Antonio, I say San Antonio and You know when you think about priority setting, which is what you know, I was really respectfully talking about here is You spend dollars based on what's most important to you to you as it relates to your community That's what this exercise is about not what's necessarily most important to you and you are addressed Those are important considerations, but when I think of education I think of every single young person in this town north south east or west and that's how you set priorities that Generate long-term benefits for the city and benefit everybody So stopping there. Just the last thing I'll say is we also Wanted to us all to be thinking about the fact that this city is not going to get any less complex It's not going to get smaller. It's going to get larger and again as we look at cuts and Either cuts or increases in revenue. That's why priorities are so important You can't stick your hand in the head in the sand and suggest that San Antonio is going to retract We're only going to grow and it takes us to be smarter Smarter in terms of what we spend smarter in terms of what we cut smarter in terms of what we demand Out of those dollars spent to make sure that this complex city continues to be the best in the nation. So, thanks. Thank you All right And Daryl is right. I didn't think about the city divided to districts until I ran for one I don't think that most people look at it that way. You're right Most people who aren't in politics look at it as a city and just say east side west side Jefferson area and so forth Who's next? We're next councilman we had not total consensus at the table, but we certainly have a Good informational group We started out and we did try to to do some cuts But we we all know That the police department and the fire department are two of our most important departments in San Antonio We had the fire department in my neighborhood today So we realize that so we would like for the insurance some of them did I didn't to have the insurance aligned within their department and and I Don't know how that can be done appropriately, but anyway that was some suggestions from our table So since they've asked me to speak I'll tell you The next thing that we would like to reduce is The city attorney's office by a million dollars. I think we've got about 40 or 50 The attorneys turned off your mic I knew it and take it away from me, but anyway It's San Antonio does not have insurance We have to have attorneys to settle insurance claims every every week our every council meeting anyway And it's kind of ridiculous So we say go ahead and let's take away Let's need to do one of the other let's let the city get some insurance or Take away Oh four million dollars from the city attorneys and there's 40 or 50 of them. I hope none of you here tonight the city center development We want to take away a million We've got other other things that are more important other areas that need help and so we want to reduce it by a million dollars Animal care I am a animal lover. I would feed a dog if it's on the street or give it water or do whatever but When animals come before seniors, I've got a problem and Right now the way the budget looks if you look at it, you'll see that the seniors get less Than animals and in Bear County. There's in excess of 360,000 seniors 65 and older so I think Taken a few million away there and moving it over to our department of human services and making sure The seniors get food or whatever that they need Whatever that they need and many many in San Antonio. We don't know the need We don't even know tonight as we all sit in this room what the needs are Somebody needs to do a survey find out what the needs are Old year Hemisphere Park We want to reduce about three million dollars And I I don't have the answers. I just know that a lot has been done Down there and we'd like for it to be done some other way And I think there was a consensus on that table the last thing or last couple of things That we have Councilman and Why I have to be the one to speak I don't know But we need a multi service senior center in district one The Northeast is getting on that's costing us on the bond It was the second highest thing on your bond that you voted for last time We do not have a multi service center and we have many we are the one of the oldest districts in San Antonio So while other people are enjoying district seven gets a new senior center We have a Lopez. We have a Cortez We have all these of the center somehow The city has left the seniors out in district one. So we would like and we don't know where we're gonna get the money We're gonna ask for donors out there somewhere Maybe McCombs and Tvers and Frost and some of the people that donate center. We need five million dollars to start for a senior center Thank you very much. All right. Thank you, Miss Eckert Who's who's left? All right, let's let's do these guys and then I'll get over here to you guys Okay We didn't exactly have consensus either so we talked a lot and we tried to do it All right, one of the things that things that came up is that on the one-time projects Totals about eight million dollars All right, so we thought that was kind of excessive we took a look at that and that the The economic development that's listed on there. It's not that we don't believe that economic development needs to happen We think there's been a redundancy of services. So we're concerned about that for instance sage works at work Westside development corporation the city center and some of the things that are listed on those those one-time hits as well It's all around economic development And we don't understand because the city has an economic development department that we're already paying for so we feel like we're paying Really out the nose for this for the economic development So the one-time projects Okay, we agree that The increase in sales tax. It's about time. We don't really think three cents though. We were thinking two Okay, because that's like a little over two dollars a month. It comes out to twenty eight dollars a month on the average Okay, I mean property what I say. Oh, I meant property tax. So sorry property tax not sales tax Okay, as far as what we would add We we agreed with what you were talking about that this young lady right here that a lot of this city is really suffering as far as the streets and drainage and Sidewalks and so we think that y'all need to to fix that you said around st. Mary's they need streets There's there's University Okay, so we think that We think that workforce development, of course, that's what I do We think that resources need to be increased and work in workforce development because There's individuals that are in the city that are on public assistance that need to come off public assistance And it will increase our tax base so they can start contributing to our economy Yes Yes, thank you And then we have some concerns. We think that all delegate agencies should be held to the 50% match Nobody But nobody should not be held to the 50% match and then on abatements more concerned about You were talking about You know we give these big large abatements for all these times and I think if I'm not mistaken But I don't know this gentleman was telling me that like Levi Strauss When they got their abatement done then they left. I mean, I think they would bankrupt too And bash them long and I don't know. I'm not familiar with that Uh, the school the school district at the time now the laws may have changed Uh, decided to give their their school tax So they did Thinking that someday they would get money back The city did the same and others did the same Well, when it came time to pay the piper they left There's another thing that people are not aware of Ters and tips be very careful Other cities have gone broke because they keep creating these tax increment. What is it called tax? Reinvestment increment zones Okay, so In my area, I thought I was very happy when a subdivision moved in It's right behind them all from general general McMullen and commerce And that little that that little subdivision was built So I was glad I said more tax are going to come into our area Well, what happened is that when you have one of these tours The developer Picks up the sales tax of the properties along commerce So they were collecting from jack in the box mcdonalds All these groups that could have sent that sales tax Directly to the school district because the school district messed up and they gave up their tax believing in it so These these developers keep the taxes And not just for the for the area the the property itself in that case But it extended beyond It's lines taking the what do you call it the commercial businesses along with So we have to be very careful that we don't get into the The mess that other cities have gotten into I'm concerned about those sure fair point and and to the previous point about Sure about 50% match The requirement currently is that Whatever money you get from the city you should be able to provide 50 you should be able to match it But there are a few organizations that have a different deal And I think that what you're asking for is equity across the board. Is that right? Okay good You guys are in the queue. Hello everyone. I'm mr. Brown All right We got a late start with everything but There's some things that we talked about and one of the things we were talking about cuts We weren't talking about cutting employees or anything of that nature there But one of the things that we did talk about was If there was going to be a cut one eye to the executive That's getting the bonuses and stuff like that that that's one of the things that should be cut not only that we also talk about A cut with the attorneys of two million dollars You know, why should you if you have attorneys already? Why should you spend x amount of dollars hiring out in terms of attorneys to come in and pay them a bunch of money? That's what you hired them for so they should be prepared to do whatever business it is that you hired them for Am I right if you hire an attorney you expect them to do your job, right? So why should you hire another attorney outside and spend x amount of dollars for you paying for two attorneys? so we came up with a figure of two million dollars on the attorney cuts With property taxes, we didn't see raising the taxes at all for homeowners But for the commercial businesses one night there's not paying their fair share Because they're paying less Then we are that those funds and whatnot that we're not getting which would come out to to billions of dollars We need to look in changing that where we're able to get it to get that and that would take care of any shortfall that this city would have Did you understand what I said? That would take care of any shortfall that this city would have I understand What what the councilman was saying earlier about bringing in the business But we have to understand that at any time a business Come to san Antonio and not only do they look at other business other areas and whatnot But they also look at the cost of the property in those areas And they take it on a real Seriously, so if we was compared to the houston or dollars or even also or not because of what we pay in taxes to property or not A lot of businesses would come here Just on that along Because they don't see they have to pay a whole lot In other areas If they went to dollars, they would have to pay a whole lot more Even with the incentives that they would get they would still be paying More than they would if they came to san antonio So these are some things that we looked at we didn't look at any cuts and whatnot for the employees We talked about the the health care and we didn't talk about changing Police fire, but we did talk about raising the civilians up to where they're at not getting rid of them Why should you bring them down? That's lower in the standards when you can bring civilians up All right All right. Thank you guys Who's left? Okay Hi, this table three We looked at not The words of cost We looked at savings opportunities Um, we have first thing that came to mind was we have three police departments virtually I know we have one chief, but we have three police departments in reality airport parks and sapd Um, although long term a consolidation would probably save quite a bit of money short term We think with the facilities that each one uses with the exception of the airport particularly park police They can use our subs. They can have their roll calls at our substation. We can close some facilities We don't have to heat them. We don't have to air condition them. We've got substations We balanced out the manpower at each substation this last year So we know we can absorb there's only a hundred and maybe 28 of park police They're spread out between many Different shifts. They can use hours Okay, get us a little bit closer together Right now we do make calls There are brothers and we support each other, but do they really need their own facility? No, I don't think so The other was we need to investigate the privatization of all of our departments and whatever functions that can be privatized Generally bidding and competition brings the price down That also gets them off the city payroll of Employees or functions. We know the city decreased over 1300 jobs over the last five six years And I'm sure they did some of that some of this is probably ongoing in the privatization So it was a million dollar savings. We think we think we can get in the just next year if we were just closed facilities and bring them into our substations And maybe five million across the board if we can privatize more On the revenue the non-residential fees for those that do not live in san Antonio They come into san Antonio to use our facilities the zoo the parks Let's let's raise that up to where we can raise about 200,000 A five percent property tax would give us if everybody paid five percent property tax that'd give us 35 million dollars wipe out the deficit But we know we have our senior citizens and other people That need the sliding scale don't know how it would be structured by those senior citizens are already Considered in property tax and don't pay the full amount So we think that should be investigated all the way up to five cents if i'm a millionaire And I have a million dollar home Five cents. I think I can pull it Okay, but if i'm a senior citizen and i'm on a fixed income that five cents shouldn't apply to me Okay, so with things we should spend a little bit more money on Animal care the spade and neuter Program is working. I've seen it work in my neighborhood and I see it work as I work the nights and i'm a police officer I see it. I see less dogs. I see less cats Human services with the senior citizens should be increased Streets we all have streets and we all have that one street That you got to go by go through to get home and it irritating and you know what it feels like when it gets fixed It's just like this You get you just happy when you turn down that road and there's no more and it's nice and black and pretty It's good code enforcement Also should be increased We had 90,000 calls last year for animals Uh that uh, you know vicious animal on my street animal in my yard 90,000 calls that we had to handle and we only have a handful of code people that go out and collect these animals And who else is responding and we are the police departments the parks et cetera where we would get this money besides the The property tax increase was we need to re-examine the city managers and executive pay branch We need to see if maybe they're not in line with the rest of everybody else's pay increases and slow that down Or look at their bonuses One-time projects We have a lot of one-time projects in this city that fail Okay, I don't know if you all aware of it every once in a while. It makes it in the newspaper We don't vet them out very well. Maybe if we squeezed down that budget We'd be a little bit better on examining what we're doing with those one-time projects So we would decrease those I think we decreased those by 2.5 million and It paid for these things or 3.5 million And that's what we would do at table three. Thank you. All right. Thank you guys very much All right, who haven't we heard from back here? All right with a sense of urgency. Here we go Um, we would like to go the extra cent on property tax Not one cent but two cent creating four plus ten equals 14 million also in Okay, um, we we spend most of our time actually just trying to analyze The budget's a whole lot of information but in terms of Cutting I think we looked at delicate agencies and for that we would take down one million offering a student perspective I recently attended the urban affairs association conference on behalf of the utsa college of public policy And some trends in urban planning that we saw were not just growth for growth's sake but smart growth as Economist donovan rakema calls it right sizing and so we would like to add Here historic preservation and actually what diego talked about in revitalizing the The central business district is based on a report titled moving the market by native san antonian recent harvard graduate Reagan turner in which case he actually goes through Aside from a number of issues. He makes the economic case for historic preservation For example historic preservation creates more jobs in the same amount of new construction And also the costs are less Because the building is already there. You don't have to sort of create it from scratch Also historic preservation is an ideal economic development strategy for small business development and retention another thing the King william district. I believe in district one It was one of the first Historic preservation to efforts in texas and when people move back to a city like let's say they went away to college And they want to move back to san antonio the historic districts are some of the first places they look also Let's see here the appreciation values of historic buildings often outperform the market as a whole So that's a big one as well And then we also that that is revenue neutral In terms of having to take and and give because a lot of the structures are already pre-existing And so we can just kind of keep on doing what we're doing and focus on that specifically. So thank you All right Very good Who have we missed? All right Just just for this isn't planned just for the exercise just want a few of you I'd like to know Regardless of what you think my feelings are Does anyone want to call out a couple of trends the things that they've seen that are common to a lot of the tables Is there anything that you see consensus on? streets animals All right countdown property taxes Property tax increase I mean, I I'm just trying to make sure that we walk away with at least two or three things we've taken away from priorities that We've heard throughout so I don't want to speak for you guys. I'm hearing streets Not that I'm discounting the others, but just to get the top three or four streets taxes of some tax increase of some sort abatements maybe abatements animals I'm asking for consensus. Not what you I'm asking. I'm not asking. So let me ask a different way Put your own feelings aside for a second and think about what you've heard The other tables say not your table the other tables streets taxes Less lawyers or to disappear in the thin air Okay, I mean at least for the discussion tonight Not that the other things weren't as important, but I hear you guys saying you heard from the other tables at the very least Tell me what I'm wrong streets Some sort of tax increase and something about lawyers Is that is that right? Look looking at salaries salary disparities, okay All right, that's important for us just because Again, it's not as if the other things you've said aren't important But part of this is to figure out if there's some big three or four priorities that we walk away from and I appreciate that very much um I'm gonna close it out by thanking you guys for coming I All right, I um I wouldn't even know how to start to do that, but it's a good idea It is I do think Nerd alert real quick. I do think the new google maps app Color codes your route to let you know if there's something happening So when it's red it's really slow and you can ask it to find you another route I think the update to google maps does that Look you guys. Thank you so much for coming Uh, you've been really great and patient. You put up with me Uh, but thank you so much for your time tonight. It means a great deal to us