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

That's why each week we go on the record with the news makers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the Reporters Roundtable to talk about the latest news stories with the journalists behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on the.

Hi, everybody.

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

I'm Randy Beamer, City Council.

Usually takes a break for about a month over the summer.

From official meetings.

But this week, in a very emotional special session, they addressed the topic of abortion access and passed a resolution supporting that.

Joining us to tell us what it means, what it doesn't mean is the sponsor of that resolution, District five Councilmember Terri Castillo.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thank you for having me.

First of all, what is this and what isn't it?

It's different than, say, the resolution passed up in Austin.

And some people want to know is it just largely symbolic?

How do you explain it?

It's a couple of things, right?

With the overturning of Roe v Wade.

We saw an uprising of San Antonio residents take it to the streets and challenge this unjust overturning and removal of women's access to health care, which does include abortion.

So we received an outpour of constituents asking questions about are we going to criminalize women for accessing health care?

Because with the overturning of Roe v Wade in the state of Texas, we have a trigger law, which means any woman with no exception to rape or incest can access an abortion and can face up to 99 years in prison for accessing health care.

So with those concerns that we saw from community and heard from community, it was important that we put forward a resolution which states the vision of the San Antonio City Council and not criminalizing women.

Right.

So what that means is a resolution is essentially symbolic language.

Right.

But it shapes the vision of the city council and lets the general public know that we will not criminalize women for accessing health care, which includes abortion.

But now, in the language of the resolution, it says it is the policy recommendation of a council that except to the extent otherwise clearly required by state or federal law, city funds will not be used.

So in other words, you can't really go against state or federal law.

And it was pointed out that basically the Supreme Court kicked it back down to the state, and it's the state's decision.

So what kind of teeth does this have?

What does it mean, really?

So the way city council functions is as a board, right?

We direct the city manager based off of our aligned goals that we hit on.

Right.

So with the passage of this resolution, it directs the city manager and lets him know the vision of city council, which is not to use city resources to criminalize women.

Meaning.

Right.

With the overturning Roe v Wade, we're not going to see the creation of a CPD abortion unit.

Right.

Based off this resolution, it's giving direction that this is not what the city council wants to see.

But you also can direct what police officers do or don't do by law, I mean, that's one of the things that came up yesterday.

It's a city charter that does not allow city council to direct our police chief what to do.

However, when it comes to budget dollars, and budget priorities, city council does have the authority to give direction on what our priorities are and aren't.

And now abortion rights supporters some of them said this isn't nearly enough.

It's half done.

And there are some very upset people that you didn't do more, that you didn't say take it more explicitly, that what the police department can or cannot do.

What do you tell those people?

Yes.

When we look at Section three of the resolution by giving direction that we are not going to collect or share any data, it's essentially telling the city, directing the city that we will not be passing over data to PD to criminalize women.

So if you dove into Section three, there's language that essentially says we're not going to collect that data.

And by collecting data you don't have that evidence to criminalize a woman.

So while it doesn't mirror the Grace Act in Austin, which is also a resolution, what constituents were calling for or those folks that were looking for something more is that they wanted to see explicitly, say, APD, in the resolution again.

However, based off of the San Antonio City Charter, we are not allowed to direct CPD on which laws to enforce.

So we need to understand that we're not operating with the same Charter's Austin, how the.

Vote on this was nine to two.

Clayton Perry voted against it, he said, because of personal beliefs.

And he didn't also think that it's the city's job.

It was up to the state.

Many police voted against it and for a different reason.

He called it I believe it was performative and said It's not enough.

You owe I owe you more and you called mansplaining on him in terms of what he was telling you.

Explain that.

Yeah, because he walked us through.

I was being facetious, right?

And I wanted to see, man, explaining, because that's what he typically calls himself when he's mansplaining.

But the fact that we all understand the grace act, right.

And how we function under a different charter than Austin.

Right?

So was explaining the obvious, in my opinion, and pointing to the fact that.

Right.

That it's not surprising that it's someone who can't carry a child, that they see this as weak.

Whereas what I've heard from San Antonio, women and folks who can have children, they want to know what the vision of the San Antonio City Council is when it comes to criminalizing women for accessing abortion, health care.

And we're just talking about women themselves who might be seeking an abortion, but people who might help them.

Yes, poor people who might talk to them, people who might take them somewhere.

How would that affect them?

Conversation and resolution is also about our physicians who are providing health care to women.

At the same time, when we talk about the prioritization of CPD calls, we presented that level chart yesterday during City Council to demonstrate that there's currently no level for abortion.

Right now, it's currently in flux, but with the direction and the passage of the resolution, we're letting the city manager know that we don't want to see the creation of a unit to arrest women for accessing health care.

And one last question.

Ana Sandoval brought up that San Antonio will have much more need for child care, for maternal care, because we expect there will be fewer abortions, maybe more people to deal with.

So what was the answer to that question?

How are we going to deal prepare for that eventuality?

Yeah, that was a great conversation and discussion with public comment.

Right Pointing to the fact that we are going to have more children, but we don't have Medicare for all right.

We don't have housing affordable housing right now in San Antonio.

We lack many things that are important to creating a healthy life.

And it's important that we do have that conversation about child care, that we do have that conversation.

But how much are we paying our child care workers because they make very little.

And if we're going to beef up their job we need to make sure that we're paying our child care workers quality wages.

All right.

Well, thank you very much, Terri Castillo, District five.

If you'd like to read the resolution it is at the city's website, Kosa Dot gov.

Thanks for coming in.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Right now, in the middle of this unprecedented heat wave, we are breaking records for more days, over a hundred than we've had before.

We're also breaking records for electricity use.

But at the same time, the city of San Antonio is looking at ways to cut back on energy use.

One of the ways to do that is to look at big buildings, how much they use.

It's called energy benchmarking.

Joining us to explain this is Doug Melnick, San Antonio's chief sustainability officer.

Thank you very much.

For coming in.

What is energy benchmarking and how much energy do these big buildings use?

Right.

And thanks for having me.

It's a really important subject.

And and as you said, this is unprecedented.

When we look at this month out of 31 days, only two were below a hundred.

Council passed a climate plan back in 2019 that said we need to address this.

Since 2019 what we've seen from the climate scientists that it's accelerating and we need to take action.

One of the things we are looking at are large buildings.

When we look at our greenhouse gas inventory that's our guiding documents and our to understand how we're doing with climate action.

Our buildings and the energy that goes to our buildings accounts for the largest portion of the building sector.

Commercial buildings, including large multifamily, account for more than half.

So we're trying to figure out where do we start we need we can't do everything all at once, but if we start with large buildings, we believe there's a better return on investment.

And now energy benchmarking.

As I understand it, just means that you're going to what, tell these companies how much they're using.

You're not going to punish them.

Correct.

For using too much.

But then what does it do besides tell me what I have?

Sure.

And encourage.

One of the things that we really have an advantage of right now is we can see how other cities have had done this and the benefits.

And currently, over 40 jurisdictions across the country have some form of a benchmarking program.

The latest was the city and county of Honolulu, who passed an ordinance a few weeks ago.

But basically, there's two components.

It would require property owners of a certain size.

And in San Antonio, we're considering 50,000 square feet and above, and there's about 2100 buildings, city wide that would fall into that category.

It would require that they benchmark using a free tool called EPA portfolio manager.

The city uses that ourselves.

Very simple It's a it's a once a year reporting.

And what it does is it compares your buildings energy use to other similarly similar buildings.

So office to office, hospital to hospital.

And what it does is it gives you a score between zero and 150 being average, a hundred being incredibly good And it just gives you that information to know is there more opportunity.

The second part of it, in order to really make this truly impactful, is cities have disclosed that score.

Other cities have disclosed a lot more information.

We're not proposing that.

But what it does is it provides motivation to the property owner.

They want to put their best foot forward, but it also provides really important information to consumers.

If I'm looking to rents in a multifamily apartment building, I might want to shop around and make sure that I'm getting an apartment that is as efficient as possible because it's going to save me money.

But I think you said something really key for the public to know.

There's no shaming.

You know, this is there's this is not about making anybody look bad.

It's about highlighting those that are doing the best.

And it's not making any property owner do anything.

Which they are doing in some other cities or will be doing over a number of years.

There's a few cities now that have taken the step to set long term targets for different building sectors to say, we'd like you to reach a 30% reduction in the next ten years.

That's not being contemplated here.

We believe, based upon the research that we've looked at, simply a benchmarking and public disclosure program where we're we're calling it a building energy awareness program could produce anywhere from a two to 10% reduction present.

The same kind of thing.

I just got a call from Cbus Energy.

It's not the robo call that says, please don't use this much energy, but it's one of those that said Congratulations.

Here are the top five in your neighborhood for energy efficiency.

How much change does that bring, those kind of psychological things?

Yeah.

So it's it's related, but I think it's a little bit more than that.

What we have seen is one, requiring property owners to do a full benchmark is important.

What you get from CPS simply shows how your energy use compares to your neighbors.

What this would do is basically compare your energy use to similar buildings.

And so and then disclose that score publicly.

When you get that robo call or you check your account, it's only using that.

So this is also about trying to make sure the public has more awareness of energy use in general.

And I think that's really key at this day and age with climate change, the challenge to our energy supply, particularly on extreme heat days.

Every kilowatt counts and we really need to make sure that we're valuing it properly.

If I'm out there and I want to know different strategies that I can do right now, how I can get a rebate, a solar energy, this kind of thing, where's the best place to go for information?

I think CPS energy, obviously their website has valuable information about what they're offering.

I think they're also rolling out, you know, and continuing to look at what future rebate and incentive programs would look like.

My office is also a great start.

You can go to a sustainability dot com.

That's our landing page for all things climate and sustainability.

And, you know, I think we're all in this together, you know, climate change is here.

It's it's happening faster than we we thought.

And we're really looking for feedback from the community on does this policy make sense?

And we're hoping to go to council later this this year with a with a proposal.

And so if folks would like to learn more information, please, please get in touch with us.

All right.

Well, thank you very much for coming in.

Doug Melnick, chief sustainability officer for the city of San Antonio.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Right now is your chance to have a say.

Give your input on public art projects in San Antonio or you wonder who comes up with those ideas.

Where they are.

Well, you can be involved in that.

Joining us to talk about it is Crystal Jones, executive director of San Antonio's Department of Arts and Culture.

Thank you for coming in.

Thanks for having me.

What are you doing right now in terms of public art and getting ready to decide first where it is and then what it is?

Yes.

So our public art process with the city of San Antonio relies heavily on community engagement.

And it really starts with picking the where.

That's how it starts.

So the bond was voted on by voters in May, and there's 182 infrastructure projects as a part of that bond.

We have to narrow those projects down in those locations to where we want to see public art in our community throughout all districts.

And that's what we're starting with now.

We have a series of community engagement sessions that are happening in August and September.

We're going to meet with residents and say, this is where public art is currently.

Where else would you like to see public art?

And when they do that, some people might think that it's the other way around that I think this would be a great place for this kind of particular public art.

Sculpture needs to go here for that, but it's not that.

It's just where first.

Yes, it's where first because with the bond, there are legal parameters and you have to have a public art project on a location as a part of the bond, the bond program.

So let's say there's a drainage project.

That public art piece, if that location was selected, has to be on site of the drainage or within the site of the drainage projects.

So it's very closely tied to the bond infrastructure.

People might.

Wonder, wait public art on a drainage.

Project?

Yes.

And it does happen.

So we actually have a piece that we're finishing up as a part of the 2017 bond.

It's called Ceiling Channel.

It's in District seven.

It was a drainage project.

And just off to the side of the drainage project is going to be this poet point.

There's over 12 artists that are here local and San Antonio that are part of that project.

There's going to be poetry in these shade structures on the ground on benches.

So there's an area where there wasn't a lot of shade to begin with.

Now there's going to be shade and inspiration through art.

And some of these things can become locations that are really unknown to say, tourist attractions.

But almost to that point you have the fish.

Under the river walk, you have some of the lights under the freeways.

What are the kinds of things are you either looking for or want to tell people about?

So we're definitely looking at accessibility.

We want to make sure, especially when we're going throughout districts and installing public art, that it is free, accessible to the public.

That's the very first thing we want residents to really benefit from the quality of life that comes through seeing art.

But there is also the economic driver, not only of giving artists direct economic impact for the creation of art, but also attracting tourists, attracting businesses, because we know that tourist businesses are really interested in going to cultural cities and seeing that mural for their selfie or seeing that sculpture that they can go tell their friends that they experience.

And now you also have talked about that public art is a way to honor.

Remember, people focus on issues that are important to people in the city.

Yes.

One of my one of the projects that really stands out to me is the windows to our heritage.

It's on South Street.

And there's also a couple of other locations around the World Heritage site.

And you can drive through walk through and you can see images of people who have lived in the area, businesses who have been in that area, and also folklore.

So it's really a chance to take a snapshot in time and make sure that that legacy lives on for future generations.

And one of the projects that you're getting ready to put up is on Farmer's Market.

I think downstairs in downtown, and that is an interesting process of how it came about.

And people worked on it together.

Yes, that's what we're looking forward to as a part of this next bond.

Anywhere we can connect the community with the art.

That's what we would like to do.

And that particular piece, that's to San Antonio artist Ashley Garza and Hailey Morillo, they're fantastic and talented artist.

They have this huge mural that's going up in front of the farmer's market.

And they invited people to San Anto Cultural Arts Center to help them paint it.

They designed everything.

But it was kind of a paint by numbers.

And it was like every Wednesday and Saturday, you show up and if you show up, they'll tell you what to do.

Yeah.

And the most exciting part is that so many people showed up that the mural was finished quite earlier than expected.

So I mean, people are really hungry to participate in art projects and also see art in our community.

For more information, just go to.

San Antonio dot gov slash arts.

All right.

Thanks very much.

Crystal Jones, executive director of San Antonio's Department of Arts and Culture.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

More than two months now after the Valley shooting massacre and there is still a fallout.

In fact, just this week, more than a dozen news organizations filed suit against the Texas Department of Public Safety, claiming that DPS is on lawfully blocked their attempts to get public documents public records about that school shooting.

Joining us to talk about that is Sanford now, one who is the editor in chief of the San Antonio Curran.

Thank you for coming in.

Right to be here.

You've been covering a lot of this since it began.

And DPS has come under some scrutiny for not only its actions there, but then since then, the mayor of the valley has accused them of a cover up for not letting more information out.

Where are we on this?

Yeah, well, I think we've we've sort of reached an interesting point where you've got not just some local news organizations, but some national ones, including CNN, Washington Post, New York Times Company, joining in with Texas Tribune, ProPublica, etc., and saying that they have requested documents, requested public information from DPS about the police response to the shooting.

I you know, according to the lawsuit, there've been about 70 requests which DPS has shot down, saying it doesn't need to provide that information because under state law, because it's still an open investigation.

Now, the news organizations say that's bogus because, you know, there is no question who did who carried out the shooting.

We have publicly had a criminal investigation because you've had all these D.A.

has said there's no criminal Yeah.

She's not investigating it.

There's no question who carried it out.

And there's been very little question whether this person acted alone.

So what investigation are we talking about at this point?

And, you know, I think some of the the anger, you know, stems from the fact that, you know, you've already residents, people who have been following the statewide nationally have have seen this flood of contradictory information, you know, coming out after the shooting.

I mean, literally the day after the shooting, we started to see these these contradictions.

And, you know, DPS was part of that.

You know, director Steven McGraw and Governor Greg Abbott were very early on coming under scrutiny for saying things that turned out not to be true.

About a week after the shooting, itself, McCraw stopped having, you know, press conferences to talk about the response.

And, you know, I think these news organizations are accusing him of wanting to, you know, essentially control the message.

And now the records that they're suing include everything from emails to body cam footage to call logs, 911 logs, that kind of thing, ballistics information to some of it because it's sensitive information or sensitive like body cam footage when they were going into the actual room where the kids were.

Well, I think I think you could argue that some of it may be stuff that is sensitive, but you know that under Texas law, there are very specific provisions that say, you know, if you're going to withhold this public information it has to meet you know, you're have to say why.

Yeah, you have to you have to meet these criteria in the explanation that DPS apparently keeps giving is that it's you know, still an open investigation.

Now, the investigation, could they be meaning or could it happen that there is a criminal investigation into negligence and might that come about on the police officer?

That's possible.

And I think that's something that could certainly come out in court.

But I mean, you know, the frustration by these media companies is not unique.

Right.

We've certainly heard people from you've all the other parts of the state raise these concerns.

Senator Roland Gutierrez, San Antonio, whose district includes Uvalde.

He filed a similar suit more than a month ago, you know, basically saying he had requested DPS information because he you know, was trying to answer questions for his constituents and had the door slammed in his face.

You know, so he filed a lawsuit before these these these meetings.

And it's just not just investigators or lawsuits from, you know, Roland Gutierrez and the news media, but also people like Cleet, combined law enforcement agencies of Texas.

They want an outside investigation of this instead of DPS because they are concerned.

How how long is this going to take?

We have any idea, you know, lawsuits like this when they are usually you know, it will be interesting to see how you know, how this proceeds You know, I don't think we're going to see an answer in the next day or two.

You know, the wheels of the wheels of the court system tend to turn slowly depending on, you know, how much DPS wants to delay.

I mean, but, you know, I think it's also important to point out that right we're not seeking this information to satisfy morbid curiosity.

Right.

The police response raises all sorts of questions about the efficacy of law enforcement in Texas in terms of dealing with these mass shootings, which a lot of experts say have reached epidemic levels.

They raise questions about school safety, about the safety of our kids, how to prevent more Absolutely.

Yeah.

And, you know, and there are certainly big questions about why law enforcement appeared to have have dropped the ball so dramatically here.

There were 376 law enforcement officials at the scene, including 91 DPS troopers.

And still it took 77 minutes to reach that classroom and take down the gunman.

Well, it's going to be interesting to see what kind of reaction there is.

And the good news side there was a ten year old the last person who was injured in this just released from University Hospital to cheers after multiple surgeries.

Sure.

Remember the victims after all of this.

Thank you very much, Sanford Nowlan, the editor in chief of the San Antonio occurrence.

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

You can see the show again, a preview shows as well as the podcast.

Just go to KLRN.org and check for On the record.

We'll see you next time.

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