On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho San Antonio is a fast growing, fast moving city with something new happening every day.

That's why each week we go on the record with Randy Beamer and the newsmakers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the reporters roundtable to talk about the latest news stories with the journalist behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on the record with Randy Beamer.

Hi, everybody.

Thank you for joining us for On the Record.

I'm Randy Beamer, and this week we are starting with the measles spreading closer to San Antonio.

And now a confirmed case up in Atascosa County.

But right here in San Antonio, while we haven't had a case yet confirmed, the federal government has made some cuts that are affecting the Metro Health District and their vaccination program.

Joining us to talk about that and the measles across the state, Doctor Claude Jacob, who is director of the Metropolitan Health District here.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thank you for having me.

First of all, tell us about the cuts that are to vaccine programs here in San Antonio.

But as well across the country because of the clawback of federal funds.

So we've been watching the situation for the last couple of months with the new administration.

There's some changes that are afoot.

And, we shared with our, city council, some of the impacts that are affecting our work on the ground, specifically the vaccination clinic.

So the timing of this couldn't be, worse.

Thinking about the momentum, applying lessons learned from the pandemic.

We staffed up.

We depend on this categorical funding from the feds.

But just know that what we've shared with the public is the fact that we're looking at making some adjustments, but also looking at the impacts of these cuts on our program.

And the impacts are.

I guess you're having to lay off 33 people and get rid of some of the vaccination clinics that you've had that have helped thousands here with the measles, mumps, rubella vaccine.

That is correct.

So we, have done well over the last few years to staff up.

And so we shared with our staff and with the public the fact that we're looking at these cuts that were shared at least announced to us a few weeks ago.

While we have been moving some resources around to see how we can minimize the disruption to services, the area residents, we are concerned about the timing of this, especially given the national outbreak, the measles outbreak, as you've mentioned, the epicenter being here in the state, just about six hours west of here.

While the good news is that we have not had a confirmed case of measles here in this county for the last six years, not since 2019.

We do know that it's just a matter of time, especially if we don't have the capacity to make sure that all those that are eligible to be vaccinated are vaccinated, and these cuts are in programs or a grant that you had expected more from.

You've used some of it, but not all of it.

And so you had planned to use that money in to continue the programs.

Yes.

Operationally, we know that there's a schedule for the funding that we receive.

So we were anticipating at least some adjustments.

So we were looking at that.

The news now is making sure that, the impacts specifically to the staffing capacity at our immunization clinic, it is a federal immunization grant.

We have dependent on that funding for some years.

We are concerned about the impacts, especially in keeping at least a fledgling staff available to support the area providers who also provide vaccines, especially for kids.

And I understand you're not alone in this.

There were $2 billion in grants just for, immunization, childhood immunization programs, basically canceled by the federal government, 125 million in Texas.

And so you're just one of many health directors trying to deal with this problem.

Are you sharing some of the ways you're trying to do that?

Yes.

So operationally, the direct funding is about a third of our operating budget.

And there are other departments across the city, but specific to the work of Metro Health, we are concerned about the impact on our immunization clinic.

So that's why we're trying to assess the impacts.

We do know that the cuts themselves go into effect over the coming weeks, but we wanted to make sure that by July 1st that we have at least some better supports in place to minimize the disruption and access to those shots for parents and kids.

What are the vaccination rates here in San Antonio right now?

They're a little higher than across Texas anyway, right?

So we're at 94%.

I mean, just know that we've been, pushing to get to that threshold of 95% of the of the, school age population being fully vaccinated.

That's herd immunity, what we call that.

I've heard a lot about that during Covid.

That is exactly correct.

And so we've done well, at least for the resources that we've had here on the ground.

Our claim to fame is during the back to school campaigns.

We depend heavily on the support of area providers and our staff, the dedicated staff who support our outreach activities and staff of that clinic.

Have you seen since?

Well, in the past few years, past number of years vaccine rates drop or at least people more hesitant?

Yes, again, the Covid pandemic was an exhausting experience for residents and staff and partners alike.

And so we have seen this malaise around vaccine.

There's a lot of information, misinformation.

So we've leaned in with our own campaigns.

Right now you may see some ads about the let's get real about vaccines.

And it's a reminder to area residents that the best way to protect themselves and their loved ones is to, be fully vaccinated.

And so we have seen that hesitancy, and we've been shoring up and communicating effectively to make sure that folks understand the value and the effectiveness of the vaccines.

How tough is that?

And to convince people, what do you say specifically when somebody comes in and said, oh, I heard this vaccine causes this and this and this and doesn't it's been debunked, that theory, it's been debunked.

And again, applying lessons from the pandemic, but recognizing, anchoring to the science of our work, we know that these vaccines for mumps, measles and rubella in particular are effective, especially getting the two doses.

We know the science has shown that it's 97% effective, which means that we encourage and and remind folks of the value of getting fully vaccinated to avoid catching this virus.

And this started as I understand it.

And when I was a kid in the early 60s that started to become an this vaccine, people over that age wonder, well, I never got the vaccine.

Maybe I had the virus, maybe I didn't.

Should I get a booster?

Should I get the two shots?

What do I do?

So it's best to consult with area providers.

We do have information available on our website, and that's a.gov/health.

You may contact our department if you want to figure out how to navigate.

But the best thing to do is to consult with your primary care provider or your local pharmacy.

A lot of people don't have a primary care provider.

They don't have insurance in San Antonio.

That's why it's important for the health district to do this.

But what do you you know, what do you tell people if they don't have insurance?

So again, contact your friendly neighborhood local health department like our team at Metro Health.

We have a robust staff who can help residents understand their status, but also more importantly, to to get the facts about the value of being vaccinated.

So we will talk about MMR, but in particular we can talk about other vaccines as well.

And as we, hear more about 600 plus patients across Texas, huge majority of them unvaccinated, you would say that that's actually probably underreported.

Yes.

What we do know, as of, Tuesday.

So the state reports out every Tuesday and Friday.

So we know that we're clearly over 600.

I believe the latest count is 627 tied to this particular outbreak.

But we know that there are other, cases reported across the United States.

To put in the context, last year, the entire 2024, there were, I believe, 285 cases of measles reported across the United States.

If you imagine where we are now, we're already across the U.S. and two dozen states where at about 800 cases that have been reported so far.

And we're not out of the woods.

That's why the timing of these cuts, we are concerned about the impacts in real time.

And we want to make sure as we're getting ready for the summer and the back to school campaigns that we are staffed up and whatever decisions we need to make and reallocating staffing, assignment and resources, we want to do that to protect all our residents.

And if people think, okay, well, I don't want to make a call, I have to wait in line.

You do have on your website information about clinics, where to go, more information.

That's right.

All that information is updated and readily available on our website at Saga forward slash health.

All right.

Well, thank you very much for coming in explaining all this and good luck with it.

Doctor Claude Jacob, who is director of the Metropolitan Health Distr With Fiesta just starting police and center of San Antonio downtown.

Want to make sure you know that Fiesta is safe, especially after a couple of high profile incidents last year.

Here to talk about that.

What they're doing, what you should know is Trish to Barry who is CEO of Centro San Antonio.

Thank you for coming in.

Thank you.

Always good to be here.

Well, you had a news conference this week talking about what you're doing.

And you want to reassure people.

Tell us why that's so important.

Especially considering what?

Well, a majority of Fiesta events actually happen in downtown.

What do you look at?

And I OSA Tuesday through Friday, you look at, fiesta.

Fiesta that's happening in Travis Park on Thursday.

Things you look at Fiesta on Friday is where we had a couple of incidents, and the parades that have thousands of people.

And so, post the New Orleans incident and really what happened at Market Square, I gathered.

New Orleans incident.

People might not the Super Bowl.

Yeah.

We had the vehicular homicide.

They drove into Bourbon Street.

Right.

And so, I mean, I think the opportunity really for us to be able to convene a group together, Fiesta Commission, police, fire, to say, hey, we can no longer take safety for granted anymore.

It's unfortunate.

Obviously, we're aren't because of the world that we live in today.

Proliferation of guns, what we saw using a vehicle, and what are we doing to heightened and elevated safety during Fiesta.

So there's a number of things that we're doing.

What are you doing?

How are you?

Yeah.

Heightened police presence obviously.

I mean, the chief has said you will be able to look nowhere where you will not see a police.

Party with a purpose and police and.

Police, which is a good thing, right?

So you all know I've been on the show before advocating for security cameras in downtown.

That pilot is up and operating and will be functional during Fiesta.

So proactive obviously monitoring of those cameras, which is important.

The county purchased steel barricades, eight of them, versus wooden, which is important.

So those will be deployed, obviously drone technology is really important these days.

So you'll have drones that are up in the air.

So we're going to be prepared.

So we want to be able to party with a purpose like you talked about.

But we want to make sure that people understand, hey, I can party and be safe at the same time.

And Fiesta de Los Reyes and barriers specifically because that was one last year when there was an incident with a shooting, you could come in from anywhere.

There was no wanding, there was no barriers, anything like that.

That's going to change the city.

Right?

Well, I call the meeting.

I'm calling a meeting shortly after that incident said, we have got to do better.

I've been walking around, last year, I guess, for the first day of the event.

And it is it was completely porous.

I personally saw people walking in with backpacks full of beer right into the event.

To your point, no safeguards in place regarding exit entry points.

And so after what happened, I said, hey, we've got to have better.

I talked to police, the city got involved, and as a result of that collaboration, we're going to have fencing.

There will be only limited number of entry points and exit.

There will be utilizing one gate technology, which is what you use.

When you just to market.

Yeah I mean yeah, but not yeah.

But also to Travis Park that whole.

Right, that whole area.

Right.

But just like you go on a Spurs game right.

You have to walk through it detects you may have a weapon, you may not have a weapon.

Right.

You're going to have to walk through there.

You're clear bag policy which we are long overdue for a clear bag policy too.

So people might wonder, okay, I have a clear bag, but I want to buy a bunch of stuff.

Right.

There.

If I or I have bought stuff downtown, can I come in with that?

I if I can't, what am I going to do with that clear bag walking around?

Yeah, it's just when you come in.

It's just when you come in.

Yes.

Right.

Okay.

Yeah.

So, the clear bag policy when you walk through, you know, a piece of equipment that's going to detect whether you may have a weapon or you may not have a weapon, should be, I think, appropriate.

And the place in time that we're at, I mean, the Fiesta is a great event, don't get me wrong.

And we want folks to be able to go to events that are free and for us today is is a free event because we want it to be accessible to everybody.

But by the same token, we have to have safeguards in place.

How about, parades?

What are what can they do aside from your police?

Yeah.

I mean, they are doing I.

Mean, that's a hard thing, right?

When you've got thousands of people lined along a parade route, obviously, you and I are from San Antonio.

We remember about flowers when there was a sniper.

You may have been working in television 70.

Nine, I think.

Yeah, I don't know.

Yeah, yeah.

But I think drone technology certainly helps.

So when you're have Fiesta and you're on this parade routes, you will see them buzzing around looking at those will be.

Police drones.

These drones.

Right.

You might see a couple of others relative to getting footage of the parade, but a majority of them will be committed to safety.

Not to mention the fact I'm not going to talk a lot about it, but you will have police in places that are ready, right, that are binoculars up high looking to see what's happening.

And you mentioned the, pilot program of the cameras, downtown pilot program of I assist the cameras.

I powered.

Which means that they're going to help notify you.

I is going to be looking at this.

Well, and it's not just AI where you can, you know, program the day and age we live in, right?

Bot technology.

And you can program the bot for things to look for, whether it's a weapon, whether it's, you know, for our purposes, it's central.

It could be trash overflowing it.

Right.

You program it to look for specific things so that it's much more proactive.

But the most important thing is the cameras have never been monitored before.

So we're going to have four people in place that are looking at those cameras, you know, and will notify Fusion Center, which is all hands on deck.

Regarding police, sheriff's department, Swat, whomever.

So the idea would be we're trying to prevent something catastrophic from happening as a result of the proactivity and the nature associated with AI powered cameras.

You also had kind of a run through with the NCAA Final Four here.

There are a lot of police presence downtown, maybe some streets, blocked off because of construction, but also with police there to direct people and central ambassadors.

Yes.

Well, I mean, the good news is we have 130 ambassadors, 24, seven who are on the street.

Not to mention, we have hired former or retired police officers that are now a part of the operation.

They're not armed, but they're training in 25 to 30 years on the force, is obviously critically important because their instinct is a little bit different than what our ambassadors have, but they've been able to train our ambassadors regarding eyes, ears on the ground.

And I would tell you, anybody who's coming, if Fiesta you see something that doesn't look quite, quite right, see something, say something.

And people might not realize.

Ambassadors, the people downtown.

If you haven't been on.

Right in.

Years in the colorful shirts that help people around tourists as well as locals, what do they do?

So they're responsible for the clean and safe operation.

So power washing, emptying trash, planting, making sure that downtown is clean and safe and beautiful.

But since I've gotten in this role, I said, we're going to double down on safety.

So hence additional obviously, resources within the ambassador operation with former or retired police officers, security cameras in downtown, because at the end of the day, if people do not perceive downtown to be safe, no matter what we're doing, they're not going to come downtown.

So you should feel very comfortable when you come downtown with police presence, the ambassador operation and what we've done elevate.

Security and I will.

What is your final question?

What is your favorite Fiesta event?

Oh goodness, that is so hard.

You know why, Randy?

Because I'm a former Miss Fiesta.

I didn't know that.

Oh, yeah.

Especially for on the record.

Yeah, 1987.

What kind of shoes did you have?

It wasn't a big deal back then regarding show your shoes or whatever, but, yeah, I mean, I had some tennis shoes, but outside other shoes or whatever, but.

Yeah.

Did you have one of the big gowns and then.

So I wasn't a part of the order, the outfit that was part of the official royalty.

But I was a miss Fiesta.

So my favorite event is likely the Century Roper Parade.

Yeah, because I think it's it's a unique event.

It's a fun event.

And it's like, you know, part of our DNA in San Antonio because of the Riverwalk.

But it's always usually really great weather.

And it's a night parade.

And so you can't get any better.

Yeah, I think it's for.

Once I've been in that parade, but not as, Mr. or Miss anything.

Well, we need to anoint you Mr..

I think we're good.

Thank you very much for coming in.

And and on the way out, do the the the wave.

What is.

Oh.

Yeah.

Figure it.

Thanks very much, Mr. Barry.

See you central in San Antonio.

Appreciate it.

Go bye bye.

On reporters roundtable this week we are talking about the school voucher bills moving through the Texas Legislature and early voting.

That is just started here in San Antonio with a whole lot of candidates, running for office here to tell us all about it is Andrea Rush, who is the government and politics reporter for the San Antonio Report.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thanks for.

Having me.

First of all, you've written about the school vouchers, bills that have moved through as expected.

Much easier than last year, but maybe even easier than we thought, because last year it was what, 21 Republicans voted against it.

Rural Republicans thought it would cut too much into public education.

Not the case this year, right?

This decadeslong effort last session made it as far as it ever had.

It made it out of a house committee, has in recent years sailed through a conservative Senate.

But in the House and last session was no exception.

21 Republicans, as you mentioned, helped the Democrats stop it when it came to the House floor through some some maneuvering, including Steve Allison here in San Antonio area.

And then last election that we've had since then, most of those Republicans were targeted in really expensive primary races.

11 of them.

Lost.

And Governor Abbott spent a lot of money against those candidates.

Lost 11 of them lost.

And so they came back.

They expanded their majority in the House this year, a new speaker.

So most lawmakers from both parties were viewing vouchers as inevitable this session.

Democrats thought that maybe their one little bit of leverage would be that they're helping elect a new speaker and could have some clout in sort of what an eventual package looked like.

And while we were not there on the House floor at two in the morning or whenever this happened, we circled back with some of our local lawmakers who were involved in this, state rep Diego Bernal was one of the he's the vice chair of the public education committee and was not enthusiastic about the concessions that they got, although it was hours after they passed a $7.7 billion public education spending bill, funding bill, Which sounds big, but is is only, what, 355 $395 more per student.

And they hadn't increased that since 2019 or something like that.

And remember that last legislative session they passed all of that.

There was agreement from both parties that that investment needed to happen in public schools.

And then it never reached the school districts because Governor Abbott said, we're only giving them that money.

If you pass a voucher program to you, and the lawmakers wouldn't agree to it.

So this is money that this public schools have been now waiting on for several years.

And people weren't always excited about a lot of the things in there said, this is a historic investment that's overshadowed by this other day with a voucher vote.

But the $1 billion set aside for vouchers is able to increase.

And so, some of other lawmakers said in a short amount of time, we will be spending more on vouchers on private school education in this school in this state, than on public education.

And it's still unclear between the House version and the Senate version, exactly how much is going to be available for vouchers, and one of the bills has it up to 10 or $11,000 per student, while the average public school student now gets 6555 per student.

And there are going to be fewer those with more students going to private schools.

Right.

And some of those details will have to be hashed out between committee, in a conference report about that bill that will set some of those details.

So we don't know exactly what it looks like.

The house version had it matching the vouchers amount is worth whatever that public school that would educate the same child is receiving.

So we don't know exactly what it will look like yet.

But the governor was optimistic about it when the House bill passed and said he intends to sign it.

And I thought it was interesting that you wrote about how it wasn't just the governor in closed door meetings pushing those Republicans who might be wavering to go ahead and vote for the bill, but that President Trump, he got involved as well.

Right.

So you went from 21 House Republicans siding with Democrats to 11 of them, lost their reelection races to pro voucher alternatives.

And then to of this vote, only two Republicans siding with the Democrats.

So a lot of maneuvering behind the scenes to bring people on board.

But President Trump, as I understand, was used, on a phone call or two to whip the votes, as they call it, to basically threaten them that they'd be primaried if they didn't do it.

Yes.

And weighed in publicly throughout this debate many times.

Right.

And now, well, let's get to, the early voting here in San Antonio for the only the 59 candidates.

I think it is now 50.

Nine city council just for the mayor, another couple dozen for school board.

Wow.

So what do you think going to happen?

We're looking at, runoffs in almost every district.

These are crowded races.

And if nobody gets to 50% in the city council races at the mayor's race, we will have a June 7th runoff.

And but remember, this is our they extended the terms for these positions.

In November, voters approved that the charter City Council's Charter Review Commission recommended that voters approved it on the November ballot.

So this is our last city election until 2029.

And these jobs also pay a little better this year.

So San Antonio does its, qualification to appear on the ballot a little differently than other large cities.

We only charge $100 to get on the ballot, so it encourages a large number of people to run.

You also had a lot of pent up interest waiting for this open mayor's race and these open city council races that are open because of the mayor's race.

So a lot of change on the ballot.

Not a lot of turnout so far, but we'll see.

And there are talk now of changing the way, the requirements for getting on the ballot.

As you said, it's only $100.

There's no signature requirement, no petition or anything.

I, as others do, you can get on that way or just pay $100 and your name's on the ballot.

All right.

This was a, a filing fee that was set in 1974, and the city has not wanted to change it.

They wanted to keep running for office, available to people of all income levels.

But other cities have jacked up that fee a lot.

They also you are required to have a petition alternative if somebody can't pay.

And in San Antonio, that's so low right now it's like for some of these council districts, 40 petition signatures, not one of 59 candidates went that route.

Everybody just paid $100 this year.

And back back in the early 70s when they set that, you also only got paid $20 per meeting.

So it wasn't like everybody was going to run, because if we're going to make a lot of money now, you have a decent salary.

Yeah, this is kind of a little known thing.

I'll talk to political consultants elsewhere in the state who are working on these races, because there's so many candidates and so, you know, little talent to go out and so little like political staffing to go around that they're like, I don't understand why you guys have so many candidates down there.

And this is why we have this low filing fee.

We also just have a ton of interest in these races this year.

And a ton of work for a year to do between now May 3rd and June 7th.

Thank you very much.

Andrea Rush, government and politics reporter for the San Antonio Report.

Appreciate it.

And thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can watch this show again.

You can see any previous shows as well as download it as a podcast.

Just go to KLRN.org I'm Randy Beamer.

We'll see you next.

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