 Good evening everyone. Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to talk with us about our fiscal year 2015 budget We're just now at the beginning of the process. My name is councilman Ron Nirenberg I'd represent district eight and to my left is councilman Joe Crier represents district nine This meeting is about setting the agenda for city council as we go into our goal setting meeting Which is going to take place next week a week from today on May 27th where the city council will lock ourselves in a room Figure out what we're going to do next year With the budget, so thank you all for being here. I also want to start by saying happy birthday to our city manager Cheryl Scully I'll hand the mic off really quickly to my count of my colleague Councilman Crier, but first I will say that I think we both agree on one thing that is we live in a great community We have some significant challenges with the budget. It's a 2.3 billion dollar budget But we are blessed to have wonderful city staff From top to bottom and we're going to make a great year out of this year with the challenges with your input And at the end of the year, we'll say that we got a job. Well done. So councilman Carr Thank You Ron Just quick show of hands here How many of you think as Ron said next week when we lock ourselves in that room We should throw away the key And just stay in the locked room I share Ron's thanks for y'all participating in this This is my first Go around on this and I'm trying to make as many of these as I can frankly because I want to learn about them So I'm just here more than anything else to listen To you and to listen to the kind of input that you want to give to this process as it rolls forward So we've got a lot of challenges as Ron says we've got a projected deficit We've got to deal with as all of you know I see some of my friends here from police and fire who we all love and respect there in the middle of negotiations on a contract The results of that will have an impact on this budget Ultimately if not this immediate one so everything that you give back to us is is critically important to this process And I am grateful to you for taking the time out of your schedule to do it as is Ron And where do we go from here Cheryl? America's greatest city manager Cheryl Scully on the birthday girl Thank you council members. Thank you all for coming tonight. We aren't going to talk about how many years though None of none of that tonight 39th again So welcome we're glad you're here I want to ask all of the city staff who are here to just stand up and be recognized We have a lot of staff here and we have both of our chiefs in the back police chief bill McManus and fire chief Charles hood as well as assistant managers and department heads, so There each table has a city representative to help facilitate This evening and help your conversation and we do someone asked me when I came in and was saying hello We take the comments that you give us and we've incorporated Many many of them into the budget so you come up with good ideas And that's the purpose of having the meeting tonight to hear from you and to hear your suggestions as to what you think is important But also as an educational process to share information with you so that you know What is going on within the workings of city government because we want you to know and to be most Knowledgeable as you give us your suggestions in that process So the way it works this evening. We have a short video that just summarizes our budget staff. You can sit down. That's okay Thank you for being here But we have a short video presentation that outlines the 2.3 billion dollar budget that Councilman Nirenberg just mentioned and we'll talk about the budget challenges So some of you may wonder okay, we present the five-year forecast and we tell the council Here's what our financial position is and what it looks like for the upcoming year and then You may say but somehow that goes away and you present a balanced budget in August And that is because we're required by law to present a budget so what we do is take the suggestions that you give us and we take those priorities that are Established by the mayor and council in the goal setting session and we prepare a financial plan that reflects What the council members want us to include in the proposed budget and because we're required by law to submit to council a Balanced budget. That's what I'm required to present to them and that'll be on August 7th then we work through the summer to Reduce our cost to change the way we're doing and presenting the business doing the business for the city So that we can do it at least cost to you the taxpayers and that's really what it's about How do we bring greatest value to you our customers in the community our residents those who live here and care about the Community so we do our very best to give you the very best service best value for the dollars that you pay So let's take a look at the video We'll make a couple of comments and then Maria via Gomez the best budget director in the in the country Is here and she's going to give you a few instructions about how we best can obtain your input this evening And we try different ways each year so we learn from the previous Experiences and we try to make it better and give us your feedback at the end of the meeting as well So let's run the video and then we'll have some Conversation about how the process works tonight. Okay 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 two point three 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% 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 enhance 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 So couple couple of things as Maria comes forward about the budget Over the past eight years. We have worked to improve the professionalism of city government and Deliver the highest quality service at the least cost to the taxpayers During that time frame based on recommendations and with much consideration by the mayor and council. We've added Almost 500 police officers and firefighters to service our growing community and keep our response times low We have reduced the number of civilian personnel by more than 1200 people so we actually have fewer city employees today than we did eight years ago And if you think about it, we've added more fire stations more libraries Hundreds of acres of more parkland So we're changing the way we deliver the service to be as efficient as we can We're now at a point where to balance the budget and to manage all of the expenses to provide high quality Services to the community we need to make some changes within the services. We're providing today So there was a lot of conversation in the video about and I'm sure you've heard through the media and perhaps followed some of the work of the Legacy task force appointed by the mayor and council to study pension and health care costs of our employees throughout the city Organization and in that process the recommendations that came from the task force include making sure that we provide fair and equitable Equitable health care for our employees that is affordable to the taxpayers a pretty basic concept We know that we all contribute toward the cost of our health care and that's what we're trying to achieve in our Conversations with our police and fire personnel making sure that what we're doing is fair and equitable for our employees Our core service public safety and yet is affordable to the taxpayers And we know that health care costs have been growing rapidly over the past two decades So to manage those costs what's happened is our public safety expenses are growing faster than our general fund revenue And so it's consuming a larger and larger percentage of the general fund budget meaning that to keep it balanced And without raising taxes and we have not raised our property taxes for more than 20 years So to continue providing our quality services and manage the budget That means that we have to cut that one-third of the budget that isn't public safety No one wants to recommend reducing library hours or cutting our animal care services or reducing code enforcement or Heaven forbid reducing street maintenance. We maintain 4,000 miles of streets. So there's a lot of work to be done out there But we are required by law to maintain a balanced budget So we're examining every aspect of the budget every year to make sure that we're doing the very best possible And I want to thank those community members and employees who participated on the legacy task force to help us come up With recommendations that were presented to the city council So all of this your input tonight those recommendations and our very best professional Recommendations to the council will all be put together After we hear from the council in their goal setting session on Tuesday May 27th to come up with the best financial plan Possible for the community So now I'm going to turn this over to Maria via goma. She'll give you a few Instructions as to what we're asking you to do at your tables this evening and then we'll have we'll report out before we leave tonight Maria Thank you Cheryl. Well, good evening and thank you for being here with us tonight So now that you have heard a little bit about the budget have a better understanding how the budget process works and the financial Challenges at the city spacing. We want to hear your input. We need your help and prioritizing those services within the general fund That will allow us to propose a balanced budget to the city council on August the 7th So at each of your tables, you've already seen the facilitator is one of our directors or assistant directors Of our departments and we have three questions to ask you the first question is if you can please Identified areas within the general fund budget that you would be willing to reduce could be programs or services From the video There's also documentation that our facilitators have and they will be able to answer any questions You may have as well So tell us what areas you will be willing to cut in order for us to balance the budget and give us a sense of the dollar Amount if you can if you cannot come up with a dollar amount, that's okay Just give us a sense of an idea of what are the services or areas that you would like for us to consider The second question is would you be willing to increase revenues to offset the increase cost in the general fund? Revenue such as our property taxes for every one cent if we were to increase one cent in the property tax rate That generates about seven point four million dollars annually The impact to the average homeowner is about fourteen dollars a year So that's just to give you an idea the other fees in the general fund includes parks for example A river bar to revenues as well and some of the fees that we charge of our community centers And then that the last question is if we have additional funds and we could increase Some of the services that we provide in the general fund or we could reprioritize within the general fund What are those areas that you would like us to increase or to add in the next? Budget so that question is for you to identify three areas that you would like for us to add and perhaps also Identified where the money is going to come from it There's another services that you would consider perhaps is not a priority for for the community So those are brief instructions they add directors and assistant directors at your table will be able to address any questions You have 30 minutes for this exercise a 705 So at 735 will ask each Table to have a representative to report back to the group on those three questions that we ask you tonight. Thank you Hello, could you introduce yourself? Sure. My name is Ron Nirenberg. I'm the city councilman for district eight What is going on here? Well tonight is one of five pre-proposed budget hearings where we listen to our community members People from all over the community are coming to discuss their priorities for city council as we go into our goal-setting So this is the very beginning process of how we assemble the city budget for fiscal year 15. We're about Now is we're in May So we're about four months away from actually adopting the city budget, but we want to hear from our community members We want to hear from our neighbors We want to hear from Organizations that are involved in the community to help us to understand what the community's priorities are and they can be reflected in our city budget Have you done this before? Yes. Well, this will be my second cycle of doing these hearings and going through a budget process these The community meetings and the public input process for budgets have been going on for many years though We have a 2.3 billion dollar budget in the city of san Antonio So we can't do that alone on council and we can't do that alone on council and staff We want to hear from the public to make sure that we're addressing the services and the needs that are in our communities And why is it important? Well, again, I mean, I think it's it's important because we live in a very vibrant and active community with a lot of different needs It's very diverse district district alone And district 8 has many different facets and services that are required to keep our quality of life High and that's the same all across the city. So It's important that we hear from the community because we need to address the things that people really care about We need to make sure that our basics are covered with police and fire With street maintenance with animal care services library services parks And then all the other things that the city does to keep a good quality of life in san Antonio We need to hear from you Um, can you tell us a little bit about what's next? So what's next is after we go through the five public meetings We're going to compile all the data and responses that we've gotten on the budget Then city council next week will go into a day long goal setting session where we take the feedback from our Our neighborhood meetings and we make that reflected in The priority list that we give the city management at that point the city management will then Put together a budget They'll take about a month when city council is on recess and work with each department to address some of the shortages We are projecting a challenge in our budget this year of about 27 million dollars So part of that process is city departments are going to go back and say what do we need to cut What is what is the public asking for that we need to do more of maybe a little less of Put together the budget and then when we come back from recess in august We'll start deliberating on the proposed budget We'll go back to the public and find out what changes we need to make tweaks that we need to do And then at that point we will Adopt a budget and we all adopt a balanced budget We're going into this process knowing that there's about a 27 million dollar shortfall So we do have to make some cut backs if people want to see extra things in certain departments We're going to have to account for that as well, but when we come to council with a budget It's going to be a balanced budget and then we can move forward into fiscal year 2015 So if someone isn't present tonight, can they still have their voice heard? Absolutely. We have budget boxes Budget input boxes throughout the throughout the city. You'll find them in libraries and city facilities They can also go online to sanantonio.gov and Register their feedback on the on the website there. They can also contact their council member By phone by email by facebook by twitter anytime that you can get your council member you can suggest Things about improving our bud improving our city and and instituting a good good budget Thank you very much Hello, there we go Hello, everybody. I'm priscarsia from the kenten place to homeowners association. We're from table one and we have this 27 to 34 million dollar shortfall. So we had some ideas If you align the uniform benefits with civilian employees as as much as we respect the individuals to do those jobs We have a budget crisis. You're going to raise about 16 million from doing that We thought there might be some efficiencies that can be worked out in economic development Maybe instead of sending, you know, 10 people overseas for a trip. Maybe five or six That'll be about 35 000 not a lot Municipal court maybe half a million some efficiencies there and also cutting about 1.6 from delegate agencies And that was about 18 million we're able to find And then for property taxes 2 increase which we haven't raised property taxes in 10 20 years And our city's grown quite a bit since the 80s or 90s Uh would be about 14 million and based on the estimates we heard it's only about 30 bucks per household So that wouldn't be too bad And then a residential alarm and renewal fees with a slight increase of about five dollars per fee. We figured it'd be about 1.5 So we kind of broke even at about 15.5 with cutting about 18 million depending on where you're at and that's kind of our ideas for dealing with the budget challenge to use the terms used by the city council And then the challenge our challenge the city council is Here's some things we would like to see increased number one traffic operation because everyone wants to get home on time and early Uh libraries. Yeah, we do have somebody in the table who's uh from the library system Streets everybody knows about all the potholes we have to deal with code enforcement and sidewalks Yes, and we and actually actually what's interesting is actually there's some disability Part of that is in there. So if you know people with disabilities That's actually where they get some of the funding to fix those Code enforcement all of us who are from HOA's know about the importance of code enforcement And how that affects our neighborhoods And uh, finally animal care We do have some people from parts of town where animal care is a serious issue with all the stray dogs I don't like to volunteer for different campaigns. And yeah, there's a lot of stray dogs and stray animals So that's uh That's our ideas. Thank you Thank you, chris. I think table four was ready to go next First of all, I want to first of all, I want to thank uh everybody at our table is very participative Yolanda you're crazy. I love you Uh, okay, let's let's get started Uh in the uh decrease area We felt that uh aligning uniform benefits with civilian employees is obviously very very important We feel that based upon a lot of work that's been done by the legacy task force The chamber of commerce That if we align just health care benefits in police and fire alone That would save the city an estimated 15 million dollars a year If we align dental and vision With city civilian employees That would save the city roughly 4.5 million a year If we eliminate the escrow fund and the escrow fund is where the city puts into a an escrow account For the benefit of police and fire Funds that can be used by police and fire For attorneys fees to pay for divorces closing costs for the purchase of homes Attorneys costs for dwis Uh, if we eliminate that that would save the city 1.5 million tuition reimbursement We feel police and fire should be reimbursed For all courses they take pertaining to their profession We should not pay for courses that do not pay that that do not align up with their profession That should save the city roughly $250,000 a year We also believe that vehicle the vehicle life can be extended Instead of turning a vehicle in at 70,000 miles turn it into 100,000 miles. These are Very good vehicles well built if they're maintained that just That should save the city roughly 200,000 dollars a year So just in police and fire alone. That's 21.45 million Now in addition we felt that when you take City police and fire out of the entire budget That leaves roughly 300 and 31 million Left for all other budget categories We feel that a 2 cut across the board For all of those different categories Would provide 6.6 million of cuts now We also believe that should include the category of mayor and city council The group wanted to make sure we emphasized that But we also felt that not every category May need to be cut 2 percent therefore We felt that when you go through the cut process Through the debate of each department Then the cuts should be brought to the city council For them to decide Who should be cut should somebody be cut more than 2 percent Some less than 2 percent But overall that budget has to be cut by 2 percent okay revenue generation Code enforcement across the board. We felt very strongly that all code enforcement violations Should be enforced by particular Because we're a hub for tourism and hospitality Homeowners are now putting their homes up for rent Because this is a great destination location So we felt that charging a registration fee so a homeowner can put their home up for rent Also an annual inspection fee of that home would generate roughly one million dollars a year also animal control For animals That are Collected by the animal control unit They a chip should be installed in each animal and if that animal Once it is it goes to an owner if that animal is lost and animal control has to retrieve that animal It's a five hundred dollar fee. We don't know how much that would generate But we feel it's important to incorporate that into a revenue stream and then lastly Areas that we feel feel ought to be added Excuse me. I excuse me. I get so choked up working with my group Service areas to add we felt parks Parks is one of the jewels of the city And we feel that parks should be made available to all Taxpayers in the city and also libraries. There's nothing more important Than libraries to educate not only our children but our adults and everybody in the community And that's all I've got to say for table four Okay, I think table five is ready to go next Okay. Hi everybody. My name is Jonathan frank and I'm with seiu and This is my first time doing something like this. So forgive me if I mess up just a little bit But um at our table we discussed Um property taxes if we at first we came up with if you increase it by one sense per year then You would get about 10 million dollars in revenue and but it would equal out to 14 dollars That you get charged for per homeowner But we said why not increase it three cents and then you get 22 million dollars first year so um And also with cold enforcement Like, uh Gentlemen, I forgot his name. I'm joke. I think his name is Joe. He brought up that cold enforcement would bring in another needed source of revenue We also talked about Well, we had a little debate at our table about, um Citizen employees with uniform employees Um, one argument was bringing police and fire down their health benefits down to civilian level which On it might not be a very good thing, but also the um Other argument was bringing up civilian employees to uniform level when it comes to health benefits and everything like that which We couldn't figure out where the expense where the money would come from But it is still a very valid argument that everybody should be paid the same That or should get the same health benefits because we can all agree that without the citizen employees of the city A lot of stuff would not run a lot of the revenue would not run. You would not be such a great Capital in or just san Antonio yourself. You would not be such a great tourist spot without all the city employees that you had and I'm getting claps. All right Um, and um, we also talked about the streetcar Street cars that's coming in 2016 And we put that on, um, we might want to cut that Because some people think that you don't really need Street cars in san Antonio Really don't because downtown you just pretty much everything's in walking distance And then that would kind of complicate things when everybody goes to fiesta so But um, we also had what we wanted to add on the first thing is Pretty much redistribution of house Sidewalks and streets get taken care of now Where I live over in near castle hills. There's A huge sidewalk on northwest military Which does not get a lot of foot traffic at all. So it's a it was a huge expense in anticipation Of there being a lot of business and a lot of foot traffic But on the north and the east and west side There's sidewalks that are cracking. There's potholes in the street There's things that are not going right on that side of town and you just need if we could redistribute that Redistribute effort away from places that really don't need it and they're good The good the way they are and people feel that they're good the way they are even people that live in those areas To more needy places that would help Stim the I had a I had a thought but I lost it. I'm sorry. I have to move on to the next one. Okay um traffic operations in school zones and in different accident heavy places in the city you need to increase signage increase um Pretty much just signage like saying this is a school crossing zone or there's children playing Speed limit signs more traffic slides and everything like that. Do I need to cut down? Oh, okay. All right, my bad I'm gonna act like I'm at a concert and I'm holding like this. All right And I'm just kidding. Um, and also another thing is animal care animal care in san antonio um, I've read their annual reports and they're going towards a no to kill san antonio and it's been going that way for a long time, but In san antonio right now as I was talking to the lady over here There's only 42 aco officers in san antonio with over 150 stray pets now police firefighters city employees have to go after these pets And police are going to get called on all sorts of calls for Like oh, there's a dog in my neighborhood. Come get them. They have to go spend their man hours gas and all this money Trying to track this animal waiting for an aco to show up and then um also if we pretty much, uh Keep losing what I'm gonna say. I'm sorry y'all. Um Okay, yeah, that was pretty much my spill. I'm sorry. I forgot what I was gonna say, but yeah, that's me Oh, I'm sorry. I'm from california. I can't join on that one But the spurs are my family's team so I'm going for them go spurs But thank you. I think table seven It's ready I'm Jerome stowe. I'm with the la vita tenants association. I'm here with tanya clark tonight from la vita as well As far as service areas to cut we looked at aligning the uniform benefits with civilian employees to the tune of 10 million dollars We looked at reducing the general fund portion of the department for culture and creative development Which they use over in la vita and rather than use the general fund use the the hotel occupancy tax To the tune of seven hundred and thirty thousand dollars annually We looked up the utility cost in la vita. We have some first-hand knowledge here At this table that we believe we overpay an estimate of a hundred thousand dollars annually to cps We looked at increasing the property tax by Two cents to create 15 million dollars We looked at leasing underutilized city property. We had some examples of the redberry mansion and linda had another example Some of the plazas in la vita. We have like a hundred thousand square feet in la vita that is underutilized and under leased annually Benevitas It's a community center that lost its funding and it's empty and it can be leased out again to for more revenue We looked at instituting more parks fees, especially with the holiday camping and cleanup As a way to generate more revenue on the general fund budget balancer We looked at moving money from the property tax a half cent increase for 3.2 million to code enforcement one of our table members here mentioned that beautifying residential areas in san Antonio would Add value to the city and increase property value And then we also decided that we should maintain our libraries because we feel they're an integral and important part to our city Then sort of off the grid here We looked at shifting a portion of the hotel occupancy tax From dccd, which is the department for culture and creative development to the cvb because we feel that the cvb can Better enhance tourism and the income associated with tourism such as sales tax hotel tax and economic activity And that completes our recommendations Thank you table two is ready to present Good evening. I'd like to thank our city council representatives and the city staff here for allowing us to participate in this process and our Table had a lively discussion in several areas but first of all we we know that there's only two ways to Look at a budget you either increase revenue or you cut spending And so one of the first things that we wanted to do was to look at ways that we could cut spending and we immediately identified 16.2 million could be saved if we eliminated all of the bonuses at city public service board And also with saws Approximately the same amount We know that Both saws and city public service said that they had a revenue shortfall, but the bonuses probably could have Eliminated those shortfalls and we were very concerned about the Large executive packages That some of our top officials have we think there should be A freeze on that and no bonuses if they need to remember that a public office is a public trust And if we expect our librarians and our teachers and our nurses Not to receive or they don't receive bonuses, then I don't understand why public employees Should receive those bonuses as well based on the fact that The average social security check in our is 1,170 and we have many seniors that live on that alone and the average pay in san Antonio Is uh, approximately 51 486 dollars and so if A family is struggling to pay taxes and fees and all of the increased costs They certainly don't want these bonuses Uh, another area that we were looking at was A reduction in outside consulting we felt like if The city has many experts that we have Then we should rely on those people that are in the city and not spend so much money hiring outside consultants To come in and tell them how to do something when they should know how to do it if that's their job um, I imagine that there are some Exceptions to that but there's probably too much outside consulting Another area that we thought we should eliminate is the streetcar. We could certainly redirect that money elsewhere Although we discussed the merits of economic development of bringing Such businesses as Toyota to our community We felt like that we needed to look again at abatements That maybe they shouldn't have such long range incentives That needs to be looked at We also were talking about Bringing in citizen oversight committees to look at various departments in our city government Ronald Reagan when he was governor of california Brought in volunteer business people to look at various agencies and government and they say millions and millions and millions of dollars Waste and inefficiency and duplication of services So I think that the perhaps For example, maybe a committee of volunteer veterinarians could look at the Animal care and see if there are ways that they might suggest that we could do a better job or save money Perhaps engineers could work with the street department And bridges to see if there are ways that we could save money I know that in the san Antonio independent school district. We had budget oversight citizens that Worked to oversee How bond money was spent to make sure that everything was correct Areas that we felt like we needed to increase was our Maintain or increase is our libraries because the libraries benefit everyone And as a former classroom teacher, I know that I had a lot of students who Could not afford a computer and so they went to the libraries and did their work at the library So we need our libraries. They're a integral part of our community We also felt like that We need to have In the area of human services. We need to increase funding for mental health in our community That's it. We know everything from school shootings to Other issues that we need to address mental health To help prevent a lot of the problems in our community. So I think that would be a good investment and Again, we felt like we have a lot of retired people in san Antonio And we should see look at ways that we can increase volunteers to help with some of our services and then also Understanding that a city and county government is like a Venn diagram Some have unique Areas of expertise But also the in some areas there's overlapping and so Looking at those areas where there's overlapping Services, perhaps we can see the ways that we could save money At the city and county level and prevent duplication of services additional cost to taxpayers Okay, my name is grace and I am matt middleton And we had a really great discussion at our table Some of the things on this poster were not we weren't we didn't really reach consensus about everything But these were ideas from the group Some things were consensus some things not so much On the service area to address the budget gap We talked about aligning uniform benefits with civilian employees There was also a suggestion to increase revenues by increasing sales taxes and also Business the business appraisals and the taxes that businesses pay And then for the priorities we had a few fire station 43 having 24-hour EMS service, which they do not currently have And instead they send an EMS Um From a location that's further away and takes a little bit longer to get to that area another area of Priority for services was ACS education and making sure that People all over the city are aware of how to take care of their pets and the services of Spain neutering their pets and how important that is to prevent strays and All of that and then also the libraries Either maintaining or increasing budgets for libraries and library services and all of the programming that they provide for Everyone in san Antonio as well as the technology resources that are available there and then We suggested taking making up this this this Money from Park fees increasing park fees specifically Around holidays, which I think another group mentioned The Easter campouts we talked about how a lot of times people Leave a lot of mess after the Easter holidays and so a fee to kind of help clean up after that and also put towards increasing services in other areas Also increasing the property tax as other groups have mentioned We suggested a two cent increase that would bring us 14 million dollars and then The last one would be to create Similar to the way the library system has a friends of a library system That helps to raise funds for the libraries that maybe there could be Friends of parks as well that would help to raise funds to maintain parks in our city and that's it Thank you so much Okay table eight Okay, we are table eight again our group didn't reach consistency on everything But for the most part this is generally where we are So we discussed cuts to administration the administrative personnel Specifically those that are higher level higher level within the departments within the city Oh, thank you We also discussed aligning uniform benefits with civilian benefits as well We estimated about an eight million dollar Saved there For our revenue to be increased we thought about property taxes again that Same thing of a two cent increase to get three Sorry a three cent increase for us to get about 21 million in revenue from that We also discussed fees Specifically we did discuss library fees, but those fees go straight back into the library budget Um To the city the the the library line item within the city, but sorry Um, and also the same thing with park fees All right, so for improvements we were thinking about the uh library We're thinking about streets um an ADA specifically that was my point. Um, my father is a paralyzed veteran So and he doesn't actually live in the city, but he came to visit recently And it was rather tragic that he wasn't able to really get around the city Because of the sidewalks being in poor shape And they're not really being alerts traffic signals So trying to drive and kind of navigate the city was a huge issue for him and myself because a lot of the places I hadn't gone to either So I think that we need to do a little bit more thinking about Accessibility for everyone because when you make, you know, uh public areas accessible everyone stands to benefit from it So I think we need to think about um the the traffic alerts the the foot grooves the um Well, one of the examples I wanted to share now It's on my heart is I was driving up the days of Allah the other day And there was a woman who was blind who was trying to cross the street just here Actually advanced accident and days of Allah intersection and she ended up not Having any aides there So she pretty much almost got hit about maybe three or four times Trying to cross the street with a service dog and people actually blew their horns at her on the way It was a very You know tough thing to watch Um, but I did my best of just trying to keep as far behind as I could You know just to kind of make it obvious that she was you know Attempted to cross the street with a service dog a lot of people were not paying attention to that So that was one of the examples. That's one of the things that should not happen Not in a city like this is a great city It should not happen here. So we need to think more about ADA Big time in the city in terms of streets traffic signals and things like that So that was one of the biggest conversations that we had in the group We also throughout the idea of energy efficiency In our building So we know that we have a few green buildings already the sims library, etc But we need to also think about maybe zero emission facilities That would possibly come out of the capital budget. I'm assuming But we need to think about those things because that would make us I mean san Antonio is a great city We're about to be the stem cell capital. We're thinking about that already We need to think about being the green capital We need to think about being a place where there are facilities that literally run off their waste And their energy that that they actually take in their input and their output. That is a great thing When you think about those things we're already a great city. Let's make it better. Um, so those are the same things we talked about Uh I think I hit everything. Yes. Thank you Okay, and table six We're gonna close with table number six I'm gonna save the best for last. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Maria. I'm David McGee. I'm with the san Antonio chamber of commerce And uh, first thing we talked about a fairly consistent theme around the room this evening is Aligning the uniform benefits for our police and fire employees Since we're talking about normal health care costs here. We're not talking about workers comp Or injuries on the job. We're talking about the same health care risks that you and I all bear and since we're paying Nearly three times as much For our uniformed employees as opposed to our civilian employees We felt like it was time that we should align those and make those more fair And fair may have already been established by the civilian employees to pay again about the we pay about a third For their cost. So we could save about 15 million dollars by Aligning those costs. You've heard that before one of the other things that we thought we needed to do was to Sort of fight through the the barrier here and to be able to actually verify the actual dependence That are on that plan I don't know whether it's the police or the fire but one of them Is has we've been barred through court action from being able to verify that the dependents that are actually on the plan Are valid dependents And I think every one of us on all of our plans that seems like a routine thing that we do Every single year and with our health care It just seems logical that we ought to be able to do that and we couldn't quantify that but it would be obviously a significant savings For non-uniformed employees there's about there's an average of one dependent on the plan for a uniformed Employers 2.3 dependent. So we know there's a gap there that we need to kind of get into so that should be something to look at On the revenue building side We also thought that raising property taxes by two percent or two cents per hundred would be something to look at And so that would raise about 14 million dollars We spent most of our time trying to figure out how to balance all that So we're kind of spin thrifts. We didn't come up with a whole lot of new ideas to spend money But we do think that there's too many potholes around the city and we need to really reevaluate The process of you know prioritizing how we fix our streets San Antonio our streets are known for being part of the drainage system They take a lot of wear and tear and our city is growing. It's something we need to reassess And we also believe that Literacy is important to our community and for economic growth and we absolutely need to continue to invest more in our libraries So that's our group. Thank you so much Thank you all for making time for this tonight. Again, we are at the beginning of the process. It's a very long process All of the discussions from the tables today will be compiled by city staff as the city council goes into the goal setting Meeting next week where we'll be get to again absorb all the comments that were made and a lot of things are sticking out Already on the revenue side as well as on the expense side And again, we're going into the fiscal year 15 discussions with a big challenge Chris that is indeed a 27 to 35 million dollar budget shortfall So knowing that you guys are caring about parks about libraries about street maintenance about police and fire protection about the challenges on the other side of the ledger which are again balancing unsustainable increases in health care things like that These are all very important concepts that we're going to be discussing and find out How are we going to balance these things in a responsible way? I did want to address one thing and I think it's a good way of ending the discussion tonight, which is How many of you raise your hand are on a city board or commission? Could you raise your hand? I want to say thank you to all of you if you can give them a round of applause For the work that you do Which is extremely important work I made note of one comment here and I like to also the comments about ADA I think those are very important things that we're working on this as a city together But I did want to make one comment. There was there was a concern about citizen oversight So all those folks that raised your hand and all of the rest of you that are in this room tonight have shown That you go above and beyond You are doing the work on behalf of your neighbors and the rest of the residents of san Antonio that we so desperately need In the area of citizen oversight That's the exact reason that we have city boards and commissions Is that we have citizens engaged in the process of governance and finance and service delivery in our city And so look to those folks and for those of you who want more citizen oversight I would challenge you to contact your city council member If i'm that person or joe is that person please talk to us tonight We would love to have you involved at that level of of citizen oversight at the city the city boards and commissions I want to thank the city staff our city manager, sheryl skelly. Happy birthday Our police and fire representatives. Thanks for the work that you do And uh, you all have a great night joe did you want to make some comments? Okay, you all have a great night Go spurs