 I want to welcome you to Harvard Park, specifically welcome to the District 9 half of Harvard Park. Welcome to this budget presentation or budget day where we did to learn about the $2.5 billion budget for City of San Antonio Fiscal Year 16. And I'd like to also welcome my partner in crime, the actual home district representative who represents this area, Joe Friar. So Joe, come on up. Thank you. I promise Councilman Nuremberg that I'd get up after him and go should we do the do, which I intend to do. Thank you all for being here and as Ron reminded me, we've got a lot of really great city staff out here. One of the things I learned to be very proud of is the caliber of city staff we have and as Ron just reminded me, city staff get to vote too and they also get to live in Councilman Nuremberg's district. So for those of you who live in Ron's and my district, thank you. Go by each of these areas, learn what our departments do, tell us what you think. If you think they deserve more money, tell them that. If you think they don't deserve any money, please tell them that too. I mean, I like hearing it, but they need to hear it and we all need to hear it. So thank you for coming and in closing, let me recognize one of the best city staff guys we have. It keeps our finances straight and that's been where it's held, which is City's Chief Financial Officer. So again, thank you for giving your team a big round of applause. Thank you, John. Good evening to everybody and thank you for again coming out to this great venue. We look forward to getting your feedback and your thoughts on our fiscal year 2016 budget. I want to thank all the city staff, department heads, representatives that are here today, including those that helped put the open house together. A lot of work goes into putting all this together. If you've done this in the past, a little bit different format. We are looking for more of an open house. We're looking for more of a dialogue. So we've got all these tables set up with all these department heads representing all the major departments of the city. Please stop by, visit with them, give them your feedback. Tell them we're doing great. Tell them we're not doing so great. We certainly want your feedback. There are people that you know that couldn't make it out tonight. We have one more public hearing on September 2nd at 6 p.m. downtown in the municipal plaza in the city council chamber. So there's one more opportunity for folks to come in and give us their feedback then. And then also this year, we are virtual. So if you know folks that just said, hey, I can't make it down to one of these public hearings or open houses, you can go to saspeakup.com and they can provide their feedback. And again, we're looking for, you know, things that you like in the budget, things that you think we're doing well and you want us to focus more on. But also, what would you change? What would you do differently? So all those comments are important to us. I encourage you to go around and visit with the staff. These folks love talking about what they do. And certainly they're available to answer questions. So thank you again for being here this evening. And with that, we're going to get started. Thank you. I'm an AmeriCorps VISTA leader serving in the Eastside Promise Zone developing a Citizen Leadership Academy program. And I'm pleased to be part of a team of four other AmeriCorps VISTA members. Community engagement, the interaction with residents, neighborhood associations. It's a profoundly interesting and satisfying process. And I'm hoping to make a difference here on the Eastside San Antonio. If you love this service or another city service, please let us know. We'd love to hear from you. This is your chance, San Antonio, to speak up. I am a blue card route inspector for the City of San Antonio Solid Waste Management Department. I love providing this service because it gives me the opportunity to educate the public on the recycling program. It gives me the opportunity to interact with the customers and teach them the correct way to recycle as far as our San Antonio program and the planet. If you love this service or another city service, please let us know. We'd love to hear your voice. This is your chance, San Antonio, to speak up. Okay? Ready? Watch that guy. Okay, and you're going to be talking to your neighbors right through that camera because we're live. Okay, and we're live right now. And we're here at a budget open house. And the council people here are Ron Nuremberg and Joe Crier. And you have the same last name as one of them. What's your name? Jonah Nuremberg. And Jonah, tell me, what do you love about San Antonio? That's part of what this is. It says, speak up. What do you love about San Antonio? Parks. Parks? Like this park? Uh-huh. Do you come to this park often? Uh-huh. What else do you love about San Antonio? That it has Baskin Robbins. It has Baskin Robbins too. Yeah, well, that's pretty important. And the internet. And the internet. Very good. Thank you. Thank you very much for telling me what you like about San Antonio. Welcome. Okay. Thank you, sir. You shake my hand? Thank you. We provide opportunities for the community to volunteer with parks and recreation. I love that I get to watch volunteers come out and enjoy the parks and garden, landscape, painting, graffiti, and paint. If you love this service or any other city service, please let us know. We would love to hear your voice. This is your chance, San Antonio. Speak up. With Councilman Ron Nuremberg from District 8 in San Antonio. And this is our first experience with a budget open house like this, where people just walk around and walk right up to people and ask them questions. Yeah, I think it's great. We've used this format with a couple other public meetings before with SA Tomorrow and the Houseman Road Project. And I think it gives people great opportunity to really drill down into some of the issues that they're having directly with city staff. I mean, we have many department directors here, which is a great thing. Last night, I think somebody from Code Compliance said I heard a couple of things and our people will be on it tomorrow. So, I mean... Yeah. Well, and that's a testament like Councilman Crier said to the quality of staff that we have. I mean, everyone is listening all the time. We're taking down notes. We want to make sure that when it makes sense and it's feasible to make changes that are requested by the public, we're able to do that. So, they've already proven that out in the last several budget sessions. Absolutely. I mean, we saw from the beginning of the SA Speak Out campaign that people said overwhelmingly they wanted more money spent on streets and sidewalks and drainage and the Council responded. Some of the most significant improvements in the streets and sidewalks and drainage budgets that we've had in the last decade are occurring this year. So, and that's all direct response to citizens' concerns and what they want to see in the budget. So, and there's still time? There is still time. This process of the post-proposed budget hearings is to allow us to really not only get ready for possible amendments, although the window is closing at this point. It's also to prepare ourselves for the coming fiscal year. San Antonio balances a two-year biennium. So, we're already preparing for what the budget will do, what the budget will be next year. So, getting the information directly from residents at this point is very important for next year's budget. All right. Well, thank you. And thank you for bringing Jonah on the second day of school. Thank you. Appreciate it. I provide mobile integrated healthcare. What I love about the mobile integrated healthcare team is it allows me to spend more time with a citizen and really get to know the citizen of San Antonio. In an emergency 911 call, you're there for 20 minutes to an hour. And with our program, we really get to dive in and help them in all aspects of their life. If you love this service or another city service, please let us know. We'd love to hear your voice. This is your chance, San Antonio. Speak up. Okay. So, I'm here with Melody Woosley, who is the director of the San Antonio Department of Human Services. And you're here to talk about something that's really important to people who are on fixed incomes and seniors. And that's about the utility assistance program and how that's going to change this year. Right. And so our utility assistance program provides assistance to people who are CPS bill payers and also SAWS utility rate payers. What's changing this year about the program is for the CPS assistance program, we can give up to $400 a year maximum of assistance to any individual household. Traditionally or in the past, we've been able to provide $200 at a time up to twice per year. What we're changing this year is we will be able to provide up to the $400 at one visit so that people don't have to make a return visit and we can pay off any past due bills they might have rather than just paying part of it and then they carry forward that debt. So we'll be able to provide more assistance, have a greater impact on families and create some efficiencies because we are scheduling less appointments. Right. Right. And you can make a big difference. Yes. Make a big difference all at once as opposed to sort of prolonging. Right. And people have to take off more time from work or right. Right. Okay. So this just applies to CPS? Yes, that just applies to the CPS program. And the SAWS program is up to $150 a year of assistance per household and the water bills traditionally are not as high as the electric bills so that's the reason for the difference. No, definitely. But so there is a SAWS assistance program as well. Yes, yes. And what are the qualifications for that? So the families must be below 125% of the poverty level and as an example, a family of four earning $22,000 is just hitting the poverty guidelines. So below that for a family of four and for a smaller family or a larger family, it would be either proportionally less or more. The other eligibility would be that there's a priority, some sort of a priority for services in the household. It could be a young child. It could be someone who's on some time medical equipment or has a disability or of course a senior. And so we do offer a little bit of a different service for seniors in that if they, their bill is smaller, they can get the one time service per year but then they can also renew their assistance over the phone instead of coming in for another appointment. So we provide that service for seniors so that they don't have to get out and come in to do the paperwork too many times. And that's a terrific service to them overall. I mean because many seniors, many seniors as we know are also existing on box fans right now because they're trying to keep their bills low. Right, and so it's very important for us that we keep seniors electricity on and that they're not, they just don't have to get out as much and make do good effort. Well, thank you. That sounds like a really important improvement for a lot of people. Yeah, we hope so. Thank you. Thanks a bunch. I'm the 301 call center manager for the City of San Antonio's 301 call center. We provide citizens of San Antonio with a gateway to help get information or to actually enter a service request. What I know about providing the service is that we get to touch people's everyday lives hundreds of times a day. We either help them with getting a call for information to where they need to go or actually entering a service request. In addition, I also like the fact that we're able to touch lives outside the city and their county. So if you love this service or another city service, please let us know. We'd love to hear your voice. This is your chance San Antonio, speak up. And tell us who you are and tell us about your department and what's new in 2016. My name is Janet Martin and I'm the Acting Parks and Recreation Department Director. We have so many new things coming online and new in the fiscal year 16. Skate plazas, dog parks, pavilions, walking trails. There's so many amenities that we're going to be putting in place in our parks for all the citizens of San Antonio to enjoy. And we have 245 parks. So that's a lot of amenities. And we encourage people to get out. We believe the power is in parks. It builds strong communities. It brings people together. And we have something for everyone. You know, I can remember a time when we didn't have any dog parks and there were a bunch of dog parks right now including one right here at Hardburger Park. That is correct. We actually have two dog parks here at Hardburger and we're just now installing another dog park in District 7 at Nanny Falcone as well as in District 10 at LBJ Park. So we're real excited. Dog parks are very popular and we see heavily attendance, especially on the weekends. And you said skate park? Skate parks as well. We're putting a new skate plaza in at Nanny Falcone skate park. So skate parks are, one thing like I said for everyone, whether you're very young or all the way to seniors and we do see seniors skating too. Well, and also there are paths and trails through all the parks for those of us who really enjoy walking. We're very fortunate that we have over 150 walking trails throughout the city of San Antonio. We also have the Howard W. Peek Greenway trail system that connects the Leon, the Medina and the Salado Creek. We currently have 47 miles of trail open with another 20 coming online in FY 16. We're going to continue to grow this program. The voters came out in May and approved the sales tax venue program. So we'll have another couple of hundred miles of trail in the future coming online. So we encourage everyone to get active, get out, enjoy the nature and just really enjoy your parks. Wow, it's amazing to think that if I walked every mile of the parks it would be 40 some odd miles now and another 20 coming on and another 60 miles, that's amazing. Yes, 47 now will have 20 in FY 16 and then we are still in the planning stages right now to plan future walking trails to come online. Wow, what a great thing. And it's important to understand, I mean we've had the fitness in the parks but it's also important to understand that there are a number of health benefits. Walkability. Most definitely, there's walkability, there's hiking, jogging and then as you said we have fitness in the park where we have free yoga, Zumba to name everything. We have self-defense classes and so we encourage people to get out. These classes are free and are located in parks across the city as well as we have a fit pass program. It's a scavenger hunt program where it gives and synthesizes the person to be active. Every year there's prizes such as bikes and Walkmans that they can get awarded to by participating in our programs. Wow. It's all about making that connection and the connection is what we believe builds a strong community. Absolutely and a healthier community. Most definitely. And as we were talking about earlier it also brings other health benefits including making people happier. Making people happier with diabetes and diabetes. And so we believe that if you just get out for a few minutes each day and visit the numerous parks we have across the city it will most definitely improve your quality of life. Definitely. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Appreciate it. Go Parks. Go Parks. Thank you. We provide citizens in the city of San Antonio an opportunity to become engaged in their neighborhoods health and wellness. I've seen one community health worker in each neighborhood. So what I love about providing this service is that we have an opportunity to mobilize neighborhoods in a way that people remember many years ago where they knew each other and they cared about the health and wellness of their neighbors and it provides an opportunity for neighbors to speak up and have a voice in the health of their neighborhood. If you love this service or another city service please let us know. We'd love to hear you. This is your chance San Antonio. Speak up. The city service I provide is with the solid waste management department. I work for the organics division on my route supervisor. What I love about providing organics to our residents is that it gives them an opportunity to recycle by throwing away their food scraps and their lawn waste that we use that into making compost that can be reused. If you love this service or another city service please let us know. We'd love to hear your voice. This is your chance San Antonio. Speak up. Oh you do? Absolutely. David, so tell me about your department. Our department is probably one of the most exciting departments because we get a chance to deliver services right at the curve of the street. We come to you. We're not waiting for you to come to us. We come to you. And of course pay as you throw is our latest model that follows our recycling and resource recovery plan. So that goal for our residents is to get to 60% by the year 2025. 60% of people recycling, right? Recycling, right. Because right now what percentage? We're at 31% and with the organics now that we're doing away with the subscription fee it goes away completely. And it's a part of your regular rate and that gives us an opportunity to offer the three cart services folks can give back to nature now. At one time it was just about recycling and you didn't get a chance to give back to nature. But now your organics your grass clippings, your yardways tree trimmings, that sort of thing goes inside the green cart and the green cart and the blue cart will be placed out at the same day. So you'll have a recycling day for recycling materials and giving back to nature. Then you'll have the other day for your regular trash day and pay as you throw allows residents to choose between three different carts. So they'll get a chance to choose a small, medium and large cart and that's the brown cart. So if they choose a small they're going to get a 50 cent reduction on their bill. That's exciting. You heard that. You can choose something that will lower your bill. You'll go from $20.93 to $20.43. Your medium sized cart is your 64 gallon cart. That will keep the rate the same at $20.93. So that's a good thing because it gives you an opportunity to recycle more the right way. And then if you choose to keep the larger brown cart that's fine too. But then the rate goes up $1.25 and it'll be $22.18. But 96 gallons so you'll see all three carts you might say wow that's a lot. Others might say that's a little too much so I think I'll take it down a little and get the smaller cart. And there's also looking at your neighbors and saying what kind of citizens are they being right? Exactly. Because then you get a chance to see are my neighbors recycling? Is everybody doing their part? Because you know when you really ball down to it we're looking after the next generation of recyclers. We're protecting our planet the best way that we know how is doing an amazing job doing that. So 31% is awesome right now. Just 10 years ago we were only recycling 4%. So that meant 96% of everything we touched got thrown away. So, isn't that great? New day. That's terrific. Now down tell us what you've got here. We've got some really special little items. Well we always want to encourage residents to stay hydrated. So when you're doing your walks, you're doing your runs you're doing your community even if you're just being nosy and just wanted to walk down the street to see what the neighborhood always is getting everybody else's business is doing we give away these little cups just as a reminder to stay hydrated. Of course reusable bags are always good even though we've got a nice recycling program that you can turn your single use plastic bags into bundles put them into the size of a soccer ball and toss them into your blue cart so we can recycle from there. But this is still the magical piece because we give these out just in case residents want to do shopping and they don't want to compete with the plastic bags and they just want to always bring back. I'm going to get you to hold that for me. A little quick demonstration families out there reusable bags they give you a chance let's see this one's put in pretty tight let's see you wouldn't think something this small was this good but that's awesome isn't that nice? that's awesome that's pretty terrific voila so you have your recycled bags so that gives residents a chance to shop and be responsible either way it goes even at the end of the day when they get a chance to recycle their plastic bags it doesn't mean that you can't still reduce your amount of waste absolutely thank you for explaining that program and thanks for explaining how you can decide how much you want to bag I'm so glad you didn't cut me off at the head I appreciate that thank you so much the department of human services the senior centers specifically I love the energy that is felt when you come to the center because of the programs that they have they have dance programs they have exercise programs they even teach us how to cook the department of human services the senior centers specifically I love the energy that is felt when you come to the center because of the programs that they have they have dance programs they have exercise programs they even teach us how to cook okay now with a resident of district 9 who came out to the open house tonight and tell me tell me your name my name is Eleazar Guerra and I live in district 9 and why are you here tonight I live off of Laquille Soma between Blanco and West Avenue and in that area right there there are no sidewalks at any given time you can see a lot of people walking their dogs or riding their bikes or even walking with small children and I think it's a it can get very dangerous during traffic hours and there are a lot of cars going up and down so I think for a safety reasons that should be on there but also I understand that San Antonio also has an initiative to get people to walk more and instead of using their cars or ride their bikes so I think that's also another very good opportunity to do that and then I contacted TCI I think that's their name I talked with a very nice lady Mrs. Altman and I asked her my situation about getting some sidewalks on there and what she told me is that she sent her engineer out and I thought it was very nice she called me back she was very pleasant and I was surprised that a senior person would talk to me so that was nice but she sent her engineer out and they looked at that area and they said that before sidewalks could be put down there there were some major drainage issues on that area so I came down here to voice my concern and also give San Antonio an opportunity to do what's right and at least put it on the budget so we can get some drainage done and also get some sidewalks down for the community TCI is here at one of these tables and I have spoken with Mr. Reinhardt and he was very nice and he gave me a lot of information I filled out a card so you feel like somebody's listening Oh yes, absolutely and everyone here has been very nice they've spoken with me so I have not been felt like I was my opinion didn't matter so that was nice so one thing is you would go back and encourage your neighbors to add their voices absolutely one of the things that I've done is we sent out emails asking people to voice their opinion a collective group as opposed to just one person but I'll go ahead and certainly in our emails send it to everyone and I think the next meeting is September September 2nd so I'll let them know so they can come down here and also voice their opinion one of the interesting things I found this year was at the beginning of the SA Speak Up process people came in and said this is what I think is important and they tallied those numbers up and overwhelmingly people said they cared about public safety of sidewalks, drainage and streets and the city council went back and increased the amount of funding to go to sidewalks, streets and drainage so by people coming in and saying something that's heading and one of the things I also just this weekend I was watching and to see the number of people on those buddies or those motorized wheelchairs I was at the corner of Blanco and I mean on San Pedro and Rector and I saw this man going across the street at 5 o'clock and the road was very bumpy so I think there is a growing need for sidewalks and I think it's very important so it's not just about walkability it's about accessibility for a lot of people in the community so we spoke up and we think it will make a difference well I thank you very much for giving me the opportunity and all you guys come out and do the same this is our public duty thank you thank you I'm an officer with the San Antonio Police Department and I'm currently assigned to the Recruiting Detail I absolutely love my career with the San Antonio Police Department and I love that I can give guidance to others who have an interest in law enforcement if you love this service or any other service you know, we'd love to hear your voice this is your chance San Antonio, speak up okay, so I'm back here with Kathy from San Antonio Public Library and one of the things that I recall from back in the 90s is that the San Antonio Public Library had digital resources available to many of us way back in the 90s I could get online and find information what's coming in now this is so much later 16 from a technology perspective absolutely, well the library's been a provider of technology to the community for many many years as you said and so one of the things we're most proud of is between our 28 locations that we have across the city we provide over 2.2 million hours of technology use a year and what that means is folks coming into our technology labs which we have at each branch using their own devices with our free wifi and also using our public computers and software so that's a very important service that we offer so in 2016 we're really focused on expanding our branches so we're opening two new branches which full embedded technology in both of them one is the Schaefer Branch Library in District 2 and one is the Potranco Branch Library in District 6 and so both of those will have technology labs will have digital meeting rooms and services that you come to expect from the library another thing we're trying to do is since your library card really is your access pass your all access pass to library services is we're trying to make it easier for folks to get their library card so we're going to be working very hard on a project to allow you to register for your library card online or renew it online so you won't even have to come into a library location to get your library card so that's something that we think will really expand the access to services that we offer and with your online library card we hope you'll come see us at the library but if you choose to use our services from home you can access all those services in our digital library at our website which is mysapple.org so we have things like downloadable ebooks, streaming movies and music so those are very popular services that sometimes folks don't realize we have that's absolutely terrific and I have to say in full disclosure one of the reasons that you guys are my favorites is that my mother was a librarian and also now casts offices and world headquarters are in central library so a wonderful partner to us good friends and also there's one more terrific thing out there for any teenagers who are watching there is an absolutely amazing new teen services area in central library that has an awesome amount of technology including a 3D printer that's right so the central library has our teen library on the third floor we're really excited we just opened it in May and there's two really special things there one is that we have a digital studio it's a recording studio you can do all kinds of media art projects and then we have what we're calling our pop lab and that's where our 3D printer is and so that's much more of a kind of maker space for the teens to get in there and explore using emerging technology so these are things that you just you know most folks don't have access to that at home and that's what we're here to provide things that folks don't have access to at home exactly and fast internet and broadband access we are all about that okay Kathy thank you so much thank you I'm the customer service specialist here at the 311 call center I provide a direct service to the employees here the customer service reps any questions they may have I love helping people especially my fellow coworkers here but also get to go out into the community and again enlighten them about what 311 does different ways to connect with the department mobile app online and also of course calling in we've been at 15 years of service and just being able to interact with the people of San Antonio we love this service or another city service please let us know we'd love to hear from you this is your chance San Antonio speak up okay so now let's take a step back and look at what the budget contains in this video produced by the city of San Antonio hello I'm city manager Cheryl Scully the fiscal year 2016 proposed budget is 2.5 billion dollars and reflects policy direction from the mayor and city council and valuable input from residents on the community's priorities the proposed budget reduces the city's property tax rate increases our investment in streets sidewalks and drainage and maintains the public safety budget within 66 percent of the general fund over the next few weeks with valuable input from the community the city council will carefully consider the proposed budget before its adoption on September 10th we appreciate your interest in the fiscal year 2016 budget and for your shared commitment to making San Antonio a diverse dynamic and healthy community for you and your family we asked you to speak up San Antonio and you did in meetups and online you told us what was important to you I love that I don't have to wait forever at a stoplight I really appreciate the very much helpful library service because it meets my direct needs truly both code enforcement and code compliance I love knowing that the plants and the trees that we plant are going to be around for generations to come the city of San Antonio's fiscal year 2016 proposed budget reflects a community that prioritizes lower property tax rates better streets and sidewalks and an affordable balance between public safety and other priorities such as parks, libraries animal care and human services the proposed budget makes a big investment in your streets as our population continues to grow we will have to be able to move a larger population from point A to point B 23 million is added for street maintenance increasing the streets budget from 41 million to 64 million 10 million more is added for sidewalk improvements an additional 12 million is proposed in new drainage improvements to reduce flooding across San Antonio the proposed budget includes funding for the operation of two new senior centers two new libraries and a new spay and neuter surgery clinic to help reduce the number of stray animals in the city and increase adoption animal care services helps pets find homes funding for the maintenance and security of new greenways and parks completed through the 2012 bond program is also included we see kids and adults outplaying together all the time all of this is proposed while also reducing the city's property tax rate saving taxpayers 6.1 million next year by far the biggest portion of the general fund budget is public safety the proposed budget keeps public safety spending below 66% of the general fund funds are added for new body cameras updated technology and equipment for police officers and firefighters and several dozen new firefighters and police officers will be hired to serve the area formerly known as city south before the budget goes to the city council for approval on September 10th we want to hear from you please join us for one of our five open house nights and let us know what you think and for the first time if you can't actually make it to the open house stop in virtually through your computer or smart phone visit www.saspeakup.com or join the social conversation with hashtag SASpeakUp San Antonio thank you for speaking up okay so I'm here with Art Reinhart who is with the the department whose name is a little bit complicated and makes people confused tell me about the name of the department sure we're the transportation and capital improvements department better known as TCI TCI and that's from combining a couple of departments a couple years ago we combined public works department as well as our capital improvement management services department to form a new department with the emphasis on transportation planning and transportation planning what's kind of interesting to me is that that involves starts with potholes it's the streets it's one of our basic services that we do provide we actually provide a 48 hour response time to all pothole inquiries I think that's pretty amazing people can say here's a pothole and it's gone within 48 hours we're looking at doing more next year going up from about 29,000 pothole repairs to about 34,000 planned for next year okay so then as we start with the potholes and then we get to an even broader thing we had a comment from Tina on Facebook yesterday about mass transit so tell me about the role of SA Tomorrow in planning for mass transit so for SA Tomorrow we're doing a multimodal transportation plan and although the city doesn't own and operate our mass transit facilities we do partner with FIA on that so one thing we're looking very closely at is from a land use planning perspective and we're identifying top corridors that would be priority corridors for mass transit and also looking at developing short term and long term capital improvement projects to account for those corridors so yeah and you don't own FIA although FIA has representatives from city council and stuff on it but the city has to help make sure that it's possible for FIA and other forms of transportation to exist that's one of the things is working very closely with our partners including FIA as well as tech side and others to identify those transit opportunities not just more buses but maybe sidewalk or bicycles as well sidewalks and bicycles as well that's part of it I mean it's a very much you said multimodal it's a comprehensive plan so trying to envision how people might I mean we're talking about a million more people right so how those folks might need it and what corridors you need to start working on now to make sure those things are ready for the future so that people can use transportation effectively and efficiently and not be stuck in it one of the very first steps with our planning department is looking at different growth centers there's about a dozen of those citywide and looking at where we project the population from a business as well as a home perspective and identifying transit opportunities for that and so people can find some information about that at SA Tomorrow right? absolutely right okay okay there's another big question that seems to be on everybody's mind and perhaps it was because this was a particularly rainy spring but how is the city addressing drainage questions sure so a couple of different things we're looking at doing we're increasing our services this year we're programming more drainage projects this year about five million dollars more drainage projects this year as well as increasing our street sweeping and mowing and those things some people may not think drainage but what our mowing does on our channel is it allows us to ensure better conveyance through the system and our street sweeping is actually there from a water quality perspective to capture those pollutants and pick them up before they get into our creek waste I had no idea I was like what are these streets sweepers doing but we hear all the time about the things that are left on lawns and how that goes down into our rivers so the things that are left on streets can be just as bad exactly and we're also working internally we manage all of the 2012 bond projects so we're making great progress on those and we had within that about a hundred and thirty million dollars worth of drainage projects there are some terrifically large projects and some of which are still in the works right and some still to come so what's big and still out there well right now what we've done is we've done a great job of getting through the planning process and the design and we're starting to move into the construction phase on a lot of those projects so that's coming and we're starting to plan for the 2017 bond as well lots of big things going on starting out with little potholes into great big drainage right okay thank you for explaining all that I really appreciate the Learn at Sapphole Library Service because it meets my direct needs I need to use the internet a lot to learn how to make a resume and how to do applications for jobs and stuff so they really help me with that because I know that there are people here that can help me if I get stuck with something I know that they will be here when I have a question of anything and I can see that they're making a difference in people's lives truly both code enforcement and code compliance it really is important that we have enforcement of those things because it's actually what makes a neighborhood appear attractive I'm a police officer for the city of San Antonio I work at the SAFE unit which is an acronym for San Antonio I love my job because not only am I a patrol officer I'm able to go ahead and do a different variety of jobs ranging from graffiti cleanup going to career days McGruff we also do direct to patrol on bicycles we are the community outreach program for the department if you love this service or another city service please let us know we'd love to hear your voice this is your chance San Antonio speak up okay so I'm here with Chuck Chuck Saxer and Chuck you're with a neighborhood association right Northside neighborhoods for organized development Nod is what we're referred to and what it is is it's a conglomeration of many different neighborhoods in the north side of town and primarily in one of these districts one of these council districts well right now our members are limited to districts 8 and district 9 but we've had members from other districts too in town well it's terrific to see you out here and tell me about this I think you've been to some previous budget hearings in the past right yes I've been following Maria and the budget process for many years now and so this is a different lineup tell me what you think of it and what you're going to report back to your neighborhood association folks well I really like this scenario I do miss you know other than the politicians talking but it is an opportunity to take in chat one on one with important city staff and to get your views known an opportunity to share with them what your thoughts are and did you come out here with anything particularly in mind to talk to them about well I have all of the departments are very important to me all the city departments and have been very involved in all of those processes but there's one that is near and dear to my heart and that is the parks department so you have another role there as well right well yes I'm Vice President of Phil Harberger Park Conservancy and so I have a special place in my heart for Phil Harberger Park and encourage everyone to come and enjoy this wonderful place and to support it as much as you can in every fashion possible and the parks department is here and the parks department is talking about all sorts of terrific things going on in the future we have programs on a regular basis we always have a program on the first the third and the fourth Saturday of every month that has both an adult component to it and a youth component to it we also have classes for youth that are conducted throughout the week we have other programs that take place under the physical fitness aspects of the park and recreation department and there are a lot of different organizations that use the park facilities to support their programs from small youth soccer training to balloon fests and other things of that nature and small and large dogs we have two dog parks we have both of them have a small dog park and a large dog park so if your dog is intimidated by larger dogs we have a place for them we have a large dog who is intimidated by our small dog I don't know I think we can manage that too Chuck thank you so much for taking the time and this is an absolutely terrific place I always enjoy the excuse to come out here well thank you and unfortunately see I could talk for probably two or three hours about the park well and people can find videos of heart burger park on Nowcast SA because we're out here whenever we can and take wonderful videos from everything from the dog park to we have one about the land bridge proposal one about the land bridge yes on YouTube there is one that is about the land bridge and Phil Harbour Park thank you very much I really appreciate it okay and so that's all for tonight at this last of the open houses in the community but there's one more opportunity for you to still speak up and that's September 2nd so make sure that your voice is heard good night