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Good evening and welcome to KLRN’s on the Record.

Joy Palacios of Texas Public Radio in for Randy Beamer tonight.

Our first subject is Bear County and the city of San Antonio's Collaborative Commission on Domestic Violence, which released its three year progress report just a couple of weeks ago.

Today, we're joined by Bear County District Court Judge Monique Diaz and also deputy city manager Maria Villa Gomez, who is the deputy city manager of the city of San Antonio.

Ladies, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you for having us.

Thank you.

So before the commission was created in 2019, there were programs to help people experiencing domestic violence.

But what we were initially hearing is that some of them were disconnected and there weren't necessarily the avenues to guide people on where to go.

And from my understanding, that's why the commission was first created.

So, Judge, if I can ask you first, you know, what was it like pre 2019?

What were people experiencing?

Well, we heard we really had a call to action from our community that was that that resulted in the CDB being formed in 2019, because in 2018, we know that Bear County had the highest rate of domestic violence homicides in the entire state of Texas.

So some of the stories that we were hearing from those impacted by domestic violence is that the system was often hard to enter, slow to respond to pleas for help and really ineffective at addressing the myriad effects of domestic violence against not just a victims, but their children and perpetrators as well.

So it was really clear that our community's approach to domestic violence needed to change.

And as a result, about three years ago, we formed the CDF to begin that really complicated work of cohesively improving, repairing and solidifying the domestic violence response system.

And so, Maria, from the city's perspective, you know, one of your charges that the San Antonio Police Department, where they're issues and trying to get people to the services they need once they had made contact with police.

You know, one of the challenges that we had in the city was our support system for the victims of domestic violence was limited When somebody called 911 and once a case was initiated, we would stay with them most of the time until we transfer the case to the district attorney's office.

And that was a gap that the CDF DV identified as a result, and council made it a priority.

And prior to the creation of the CDB, we had 20 individuals handling the crisis response to the violence today.

That number is 65 and it's a combination of crisis advocates, case managers and the proper supervision to oversee that.

And the goal is to ensure that we are supporting that victim for as long as they need us.

And as the program has evolved since 2019, I remember being there at the press conference on the south steps of the courthouse, and, you know, there was a lot of hope from the organizations that were involved, you know, and we did hear so many similar things that the avenues may not have been there.

Then just a few months later, we were hit by a pandemic and then saw people spending more time at home and in some cases, that left them in more dangerous situations, meeting times with someone who may have been there abuser.

And so can you tell us how the pandemic kind of exacerbated that problem, but also some of the things that were put into place to address that?

Well, we know, as you mentioned, Joey, that unfortunately the pandemic and some of those stay at home restrictions ended up having victims and their children stuck at home with perpetrator with difficulty reaching out for help with some of the avenues that were previously available for teachers, for example, or neighbors, coworkers to identify violence and to provide assistance.

Those were not there anymore.

So as a result, the CDB, we had to shift our focus a little bit.

We continued working on our priorities, but on top of that we made sure that we worked on a communications campaign that put out pieces in Spanish and in English to people in their homes, reaching them where they were at to let them know that that help was available, to let them know that they could text or call 911 from the safety of their home to get assistance.

The DA's office implemented a program in which you could apply for protective orders online.

So we really continued our priorities, but had to shift our work to be mindful of the impact that COVID 19 was having on people impacted by domestic violence.

As we saw those restrictions being lifted, we did see people starting to come out and seek help more than they were perhaps during the pandemic.

We have seen an increase in numbers in folks that are seeking help in cases of domestic violence.

And we we like to believe that that's in part due to our work in communicating to the community and making it making individuals feel more comfortable coming forward, knowing that the help is there and that our community will respond in a better manner than we may have before.

So the Commission recently released its third year progress report a couple of weeks ago was a 15 month span.

And, you know, there's a lot of data to show how much progress the commission has made and how things are able to move forward.

One of those instances, what I saw from the report is that there were over 1600 domestic violence victims who were connected through these services, through these avenues that were put into place.

So, you know, Maria, I wanted to ask you, you know, what was it like helping?

What is it like helping these people reach and reassure them that there are these these these these kind of safety nets now in place to make sure that people don't fall through the gaps?

You know, that is totally critical to make sure that individuals know that the services are available.

And that is an area that we continue to work continuously to improve our outreach and our communication through the cdhb, the county, the city or nonprofit organizations are constantly providing those services and communicating what is available.

One of the things that we improve through the Cdhb was to provide more services, like, for example, connecting victims to housing, temporary vouchers to move them out of their homes into a hotel until we found a more stable place for them.

And providing other assistance, financial assistance, cell phone or or H-E-B cards, anything that we could do to support them.

So is continues to be a very critical component that the victims are aware and not only the victims, but the families and as well as the perpetrators.

There is help and that the cdhb is here to provide that assistance.

And so that's data from over the last 15 months.

We also see that about over 500 people participated in case management services through MetroHealth and that there are medical students now being trained 300 or so.

And, you know, would that have been possible without some of the work that the CDHB has done over the last three years?

I think what we have done is coordinating, coordinated the work of all the agencies.

Specifically, to answer your question from this, in terms of the city, the CDHB has been critical for us to direct and address more funding to domestic violence to provide those case management services.

Just to give you some numbers, we have increase our support to the two C's to domestic violence by 53%.

Our budget is now $31 million and that is comprises of the police department, Metro Health, Human Services, and some services provided by other city departments.

So the goal is to expand and also to promote those services.

So the case management piece, you mentioned was added last year to Metro Health.

And so, Judge, I want to ask you from the judicial side of things, you know, we see, you know, firearms being used in some of these, the most tragic of these situations.

And my understanding is, you know, the state does have an avenue for taking firearms away for people under protective orders.

But a lot of times it's discretionary.

And I understand that there's been kind of a plan put in place, at least with your courtroom, to kind of keep keep people safe against someone who may have a firearm who maybe shouldn't have it.

That's correct, Joey.

The state state law still prohibits domestic violence offenders from possessing firearms or ammunition.

And what we've created through the CDF for our community is something that was not there before, which is a uniform process by which judges like myself can ensure compliance with those orders.

And so in our community over the last year, judges in over 500 cases issued orders requiring respondents to prove their compliance with these firearm prohibitions.

There were about ten firearms that were transferred to law enforcement over the past year, which is actually a good number when you look at other jurisdictions across the nation that are doing this kind of work.

So our laws have not caught up to that yet and don't yet require that.

But we do have discretion to do that.

And we're seeing more and more judges start to exercise that discretion and really ensure that those orders are being complied with.

And just really quick, if I can get your stats, what's going to be what's coming next over the next year for the CCTV?

Well, we have a few different priorities that we're really excited about working on that reflect a subtle change in the CCTV work and that they're no longer segmented by committees, but they're priorities for the entire commission.

We're going to work on providing training, technical assistance and capacity building to those that provide support to those impacted by domestic violence.

We're going to identify interventions and evaluate interventions by improving data collection reporting and uses.

And we also have some strategies that are carry over from last year in addition to some new ones.

One of them is Spd's implementation of the Dale Road, which is a danger assessment, lethality that we are going to be implementing by October of 2023.

In addition to that, we're coordinating to talk to schools and to try to have them talk about domestic violence, using a curriculum that hopefully will allow us to reach to to the younger generation to try to prevent this from from happening in the future.

We're also going to be seeking input from victims of domestic violence and those individuals that have been impacted by domestic violence to inform our work.

All right, ladies, thank you very much.

We've been joined by a district court judge, Monique Diaz, and deputy deputy city manager Maria Gomez, who are the co-chairs of Bear County and the city of San Antonio's Collaborative Commission on Domestic Violence.

You can learn more at CCTV dot org.

Ladies, thank you so much.

Thank you to.

Hemisphere has been the front door of San Antonio's downtown for decades.

It was the site of the 1968 World's Fair, and since 2017 has been going under massive redevelopment.

To talk about what's going on in hemisphere right now, we have Meredith Falzon, who is the director of external relations for Hemisphere.

Meredith, thanks for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

So, you know, as I mentioned, you know, the hemisphere was the site of the 1968 World's Fair.

It's where the Tower of the Americas is.

It really is the kind of like almost the center of like downtown's like visual viewpoint from the from afar.

So let's talk about what's going on at hemisphere right now and some of the things that have led up to the redevelopment.

Hemisphere.

Right.

So we opened a garden back in 2015.

It's one of the most visited parks per area in Texas is it's so exciting to see everyone in every single walk of life here downtown in San Antonio.

And Yana want to garden enjoying what we have to offer.

So that's the first park that we opened.

The second park is what we're working on right now, which is Civic Park.

The timeline for that is perfect.

We're going great.

We're looking at an opening for Phase one in September.

Phase one includes that great lawn that you may have seen photos of through renderings, the springs, which are very fun pools that you can actually dip your feet in and enjoy.

We're planting trees right now, which are great.

We've been growing them since 2018.

And so they're huge.

They're great shade trees.

And so Civic Park is going great timeline wise.

And then after that will be phase two Civic Park and then Tower Park.

So what's happening in the hemisphere district?

So when Civic Park is done, what it's going to look like because, you know, when I look at the big open area, I'm kind of reminded of like Sheeps Meadow and Central Park, you know, just people can go in and lay on a blanket and just kind of be in the middle of downtown's hustle and bustle, but also be in a part of nature.

So what is City Park going to look like when it's done?

Well, that's exactly right.

We're going to be San Antonio's Central Park.

So we want people to come bring blankets, bring picnics.

The great lawn is going to be this giant lawn that will host concerts on.

We'll have people just coming through downtown.

We have water systems that come through that kind of mimic the izakaya that was there on the site before, which is great.

Nod back to history and then shade trees.

Because when we developed this park, we asked the people of San Antonio what they wanted and they said that they wanted shade, of course, and they wanted water because it gets hot in San Antonio.

So we're giving them all of that and we're excited that this park is really what the people of San Antonio ask for.

Now, even with all the progress that we've seen, we have seen delays from some of the developers over the past few years, most recently as reported by the San Antonio Express-News, the developers, which are Zachary David Alderman's area real estate and the post Lake Capital Partners, are facing a delay, and they're attributing it to a tough financial landscape.

You know, and we're seeing, I guess, things like that happen in construction projects all over the place.

But what is what's happening with the delay that we're seeing right now?

Well, the delay that we're seeing right now is due to a number of different things supply chain issues, financial markets, post pandemic fallout.

You're seeing that here, but you're seeing that all over the United States.

It's really not a unique situation.

I know that it's happening in our backyard, but I'm sure everyone's experience a little bit of the post-pandemic feeling, especially with lumber prices back to how they were and labor shortages and restaurants.

So it's not a unique situation.

We're excited to still be delivering Civic Park on time this fall.

So just because the developments aren't going to be 100% ready to go and open by the time that the NCAA Final Four will be here in 2025, those sites are going to be cleaned up and they're going to be looking great so that we can really put San Antonio in the best light.

So it's something that did happen, but it's still going to be amazing anyway.

You know, as you mentioned, we are seeing that all over the place, especially with like some road construction projects, some city construction projects.

I think up north St Mary's, for instance, some of them that has been going on and on for a multitude of different reasons.

And you mentioned the Final Four.

So one of the things that the city had to had more or less kind of agreed to with the NCAA is kind of having this big open space available for the Final Four when it's here in 2025.

But my understanding is like Civic Park will at least be ready and that by the time the Final Four begins.

Absolutely, yeah, it will be ready this fall.

So by the time the Final Four comes around, we'll be ready.

More than ready to host it.

It's already looking awesome.

It's under construction right now, but if you drive by on market Street or South Alamo, you can see the giant trees going up.

So it'll be ready and we'll all be excited for it.

So let's talk about some of the things that are happening within Hemispheres.

I understand that the cookhouse is I'm hopefully I'm saying that correctly.

You know, it received a $750,000 donation or grant from Bank of America to help renovate that and that that house has a lot of history to it.

But it recently got a historic design review commission approval for a conceptual design for an Asian restaurant.

Can you tell us about that?

Yeah.

So the owner of Dashi Christina's now is going to be opening she swan concept hemisphere and we're very excited to be welcoming her.

Her design has been very thoughtful into the process of what the house really is and making sure that we're really honoring that we're going to be having panels in there from the Chinese Pavilion of Hemispheres.

So we're honoring what we had before and we're looking forward to a new future, especially with this concept that's unlike anything that we have it hemisphere.

As we expand further, the more food and restaurants we have is kind of the way that we're honoring the past of Hemispheres 68.

Every single culture was recognized back then and we're doing the same with our food and restaurants now.

And as a lifelong San Antonio, I see them being excited to see the way that the hemisphere is developing.

I'm ever going to play on the wooden playground and they're like in the nineties when I was a kid.

So it's a lot of exciting development happening at Hemispheric.

Meredith goes on, is director of external relations for Hemisphere.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you for having me.

And now for a reporter's roundtable.

It is election season right now, and there are a lot of candidates on the ballot.

Here to talk about the upcoming May six election is Andrea Josh, local government reporter at the San Antonio report.

Andrea, thanks for joining us today for having me.

Absolutely.

So believe it or not, early voting is going to start on Monday.

We're just a few days away from the ballot being open to the public.

Again, the election is going to be on May 6th and the entire San Antonio City Council is going to be up for re election.

So let's dive right into some of the candidates that are on the ballot and let's start with district one.

We have Mario Bravo here, embattled incumbent.

Exactly.

So we have he's incumbent, but we're seeing a very large opposition against him.

What are you seeing with that race?

You know, to go out to these forums and neighborhood associations, like a lot of pro Bravo, he seems to have really the support of the neighborhood association.

Still, people kind of fall over over themselves to tell you how public, how mistreated they think he was.

This is an interesting scenario in which somebody has received a vote of no confidence from their colleagues, but has two or three opponents really that are that are campaigning.

There's a silliness to help him the last time.

He's a neighborhood association leader.

There's Jeremy Roberts, who was on the Small Business Advisory Commission.

And there's Core, who is not that doesn't have a political background.

She has an education nonprofit that works with public schools and charter schools.

And, you know, it's really unique to see how things have played out since that censure vote.

No problem.

Was censured because of these his berating of a former councilwoman, Anna Sandoval, who not related to that actually stepped down.

So before going into District seven, let's talk about District two.

We have seen kind of almost a revolving door of council people over almost the last decade jailing Mickey Rodriguez.

He is going to be potentially in his second term if he wins.

But we haven't really seen a person reelected to that district since A.B.

Taylor was in office back in 20 2013 or so.

So what are you seeing with this Eastside Council race?

Yeah, this one's also interesting of the incumbents drew a ton of opponents, but it sounds like there's money to be had out there if one of them were to break through.

There's a lot of business groups that are interested in this race and developers, and yet, like none of these challengers have really doesn't seem like there's been a coalescence around any of them yet.

Maybe that could change in a runoff.

But that's one of the races that Top will be involved in.

So they're already attacking Councilman Mickey Rodriguez.

But there isn't like an opponent who seems to be the chosen person yet.

And it was top that actually had a lot of ground gained for him in boosting up both him and Councilwoman Castillo, who's in District five.

And we do see Mickey Rodriguez really sticking to the same ground that he had when he was first elected.

First elected, rather.

Are you kind of seeing that, too?

Yeah.

And yet those two races, two and five are the only that top are in right now.

And that, you know, by my count, you have two other pro Prop eight candidates in other races, in one and in ten who aren't getting their help, who are getting kind of shredded at these neighborhood association forums.

There was a neighborhood association forum last night with the councilman, Ricky Rodriguez, and he didn't like receive pushback for that position.

He got up there and was the only pro prop a person in that race.

But that is the dominant issue when you go to the neighborhood association meetings.

People really want to know how people stand on that.

And overwhelmingly, they want to hear that people are opposed.

And we'll get it will definitely get to like Prop eight in a second.

Jumping over to the northwest side and west side of town, there's District seven.

We saw Councilwoman Anna Sandoval leave her seat to take a job with University health.

We have five candidates in there and currently a temporary councilperson.

What's what's your thought about District seven?

Yeah, also interesting.

That's one of our two open races.

A lot of interesting candidates.

We wrote about the four that have been participating in the forums, which is going to be Marina Eldoret de Gonzales, Reyna Eldoret Kavita, whose father held that seat at one point.

Dan Rosseter and the Southwest.

Southwest Research Institute.

Yeah.

Computer scientist.

Yeah.

So Integrase Martinez, who ran for land commissioner and went into a runoff and was almost the Democratic nominee for that race despite raising very little money.

And then Jacob Chapa, who was 21, is the more conservative of that group.

They're all fascinating.

I feel like these are not people.

One of them will move on from this race, but we will not this is not the last we hear about any of those guys.

And and it was surprisingly competitive because normally the Councilman Sandoval would have been able to go into a fourth and final term.

But, you know, this one we saw a couple of weeks only for people to actually get up and launch these campaigns.

Someone mentioned to me that this district usually has somebody chosen.

There's somebody, a next person waiting for it, but this kind of surprised them.

So the seat that Julian Castro represented and Justin Rodriguez on the commissioners court, like at Garza, had this seat.

This has been kind of a launch pad.

So to see a competitive race, that just surprised them.

Yeah.

And now we have Julian Castro's mom as the temporary councilperson in that seat, keeping it warm until the until the May election.

And in a nod to those neighborhood association forums, I would say none of those candidates are in the mold of a Rosie Castro or Nonna Sandoval.

Someone walked out of the forum last week or two weeks ago and was like, then, if these people are progressive, it's like what happened to us on the market.

This me and, you know, moving over to District ten.

We have Councilman Clayton Perry recently received deferred adjudication for a DWI charge.

He's on probation now, not running for reelection.

We have about five or six candidates that are running in that race.

What are you seeing?

Fascinating race.

Again, a ton of interesting people in that race.

Mark White is raising more money than just about I think anybody but Ron Nuremberg is the Clayton Perry and Dorsey.

He's the Northeast Neighborhood Association's candidate that they are promoting in that race.

And they were all at the tool yard earlier this week.

And then but then from there, you have a lot of people with interesting government experience.

There's also these has an interesting background, worked for the National Association of Manufacturers in D.C. And then Robert Flores is like a long time lobbyist in Austin on the left.

Brian Martin is a bike guy who is pro Prop eight, the only prop person in that race.

Not a lot of not a long political resume, but a bike advocate.

And then who else?

It's a long list of candidates, but like more interesting backgrounds than I was expecting.

And before getting to the mayor's race, prop a very long proposition on the ballot.

We see a lot of city council members coming out against it.

We see at least two that are supporting it.

How do you think Prop eight might end up shaping out?

Oh, man.

If you go to those neighborhood association forums, it is like it's brutal for anybody who is a Prop pro Prop eight candidate.

I don't know how that actually matches up to the electorate.

I don't know.

This is a city that, you know, reelected a county that reelected Joe Gonzalez.

And I'm not sure how that matches up with the voters, but it seems like there's a lot of money on the side of anti Prop eight.

And I don't see a lot of counter support coming in for these Prop Prop eight candidates.

And really quick, we have a little bit of time left at the mayor's race.

Oh, man.

Was potential last term.

Not a lot of opposition we're seeing there.

Yeah.

Again at the neighborhood association meetings, people will be like, who's the guy who's against Nuremberg this time?

And it's a long list of candidates, but again, not a coalescence again around any one of them in particular.

Christopher I'm going to butcher his last name, Richard Chard.

Let's put a lot of his own money into the race.

But I was at a Bear County Republicans meeting last week.

This week, they all run together now where Chip Roy was in town talking to these candidates.

And he was like, so how many are in the race?

How many are of a conservative background?

And with a little like, okay, you guys got to consolidate support around one opponent.

That's that's how this works.

Andrea Josh is a local government reporter for the San Antonio Report.

We've got a lot going on before the May 6th election and again, early voting starts on Monday.

Andrea, thanks for joining us.

Thanks.

And you can see the San Antonio Reports Voter Guide at S.A. Report Board.

Thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can see this show again or previous shows as well as download our podcast at KLRN.org.

I'm Joy Palacios of Texas Public Radio in for Randy Beemer.

Thanks for joining us.

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