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, and thank you for joining us for On the Record.

I'm Randy Beamer, and this week we are starting with a push by the San Antonio water system for a rate increase that could take effect this May.

Here to talk about that and more is Robert Plant who is president and CEO of sorts.

Thank you for coming in.

Thank you Randy.

First of all, they unveiled the need for this, I guess to say an overarching plan in April to the City council.

Where are you now?

In the push for higher rates.

And why do you need them?

We are right now educating the public and educating city council on our needs.

We need them because we need to invest in our system, and specifically a need to invest in our wastewater treatment plants.

The newest plant was built in 1988.

So you can see how that, how old that one is.

And that way that the class plant is our big workhorse plant.

We have two other plants we have to upgrade also.

We're in the situation where, maintenance and repairs can only do so much.

We have to make some major upgrades in of.

The pipes and mains and things like that.

How old are some of these?

Because they've slowed construction actually, downtown of work on some projects.

Some of the pipes are over 100 years old, and they're still in service.

They're on a schedule to be changed out, but not quickly, because they're serving that function.

There's not a lot of breaks.

So we have a lot of data.

We have a lot of heat maps.

That tells us where those pipes are that are more likely to break.

And that's what the other half of this rate increase mostly is for, is not only the wastewater treatment plants, but to change out a lot of the aging infrastructure so we can get a very good handle on the amount of water that we lose.

And that's that's the why of needing more money.

How much do you need and what is that going to translate for the average rate?

The parameters are the exact exact numbers not set, but the parameters are roughly 7 to 8%.

For the first two years, which is roughly about $5 on the average, water bill.

So we're looking and averages is not a small amount of water.

It's it's a good, healthy amount of water to do all of your household chores that you need to do everything that you need to do indoors, indoors.

But the average bill would go up about $5.

But that's still to be determined.

City council has to look at that and then has to go through the source board, then council, where where do you think that will be?

This March in a couple of weeks will be in front of our board giving them more information about what their questions are, what council questions were, and get guidance from them as to what the board's specifically, and subject to are not subject to.

But in addition to our recommendations.

So once we get that in April is when we will probably get a final decision by our board that same April, hopefully it'll then be in front of council for their decision.

A number of water stories have been in the news recently.

One, just, this week about, well, water supply.

First of all, for data centers up in Hays County, they are looking at a moratorium on data center construction because of their huge water use.

And that's something you're concerned about here.

We're very involved with, data because, data centers, that are coming in but not overly concerned.

We have plenty of supply.

We have the supply to meet the immediate needs of what we see through CPS on the on the immediate horizon.

Now, if you have a proliferation of data centers coming in, coming in, coming in, then yes, that's a concern.

But that is not where we're where we are.

City Council on its own, is looking at some kind of more structured environment on how they come in.

Luckily, data centers themselves are becoming more energy efficient, more water efficient.

So right now, San Antonio is fine with the current amount of data centers that are coming in.

A couple of other stories.

Guajillo.

Save ranch.

Controversial subdivision plan for us.

They've gone through some hoops.

A lot of neighbors don't want them there because of a wastewater treatment plant.

You will supply that subdivision, as I understand it, in our homes.

But with water, you'll supply with water, but not sewage.

Correct.

We were obligated under state law to provide them with water.

We don't have a choice there, but we use that as leverage to mandate that that treatment plant be built under certain conditions.

And there's certain, parameters that made that water.

Almost a drinking water standards and also almost, almost.

And the, amount of discharge will not be on a continuous basis.

Only during massive rain events will there be a need for a discharge, because a lot of that, which we also mandated a lot of that, wastewater will be used on site for irrigation and different purposes.

Some critics have disputed your, I guess your your belief that it's not going to threaten the water system because it is over the Edwards aquifer or in that contributing zone, I believe.

Yeah.

You have competing, scientists that one believes, something or another one believes something else.

But it's really a matter of the data that you use to make that assumption.

We don't have an agenda.

What we know is that we have to protect the water supply of San Antonio, make it, to the standard that you can put it inside your body.

Drinking water standard.

But also the tributaries that feed into into those into the San Antonio River.

Say eventually.

Hello.

This creek?

Yes.

The water coming in to, the aquifer, eventually makes its way in there.

There's something called the habit crossing, which is a barrier where that water stays on that side.

Our pump stations are on this side, and we don't believe that there's a contamination, communication between the two.

That's why we are very confident that, the quality, the water and the amount of water will not.

There's another plan.

By another plan.

Pardon me?

By law.

And our homes for a different wastewater treatment plant, a different subdivision that's been in the news up near Canyon Lake.

And that would release, treated wastewater into a creek that would go into Canyon Lake.

And source does get some water from Canyon Lake and the Trinity Aquifer that also could be affected.

Yes.

We get a very small, maybe 5% of our water from every corner of Canyon Lake.

That water is treated before it gets to our system.

And the city is taking a stand.

They didn't want the municipal utility district.

They don't want that.

A lot of local officials, Republican and Democrat in the area, don't want that subdivision with the treatment plant as planned.

You work with city Council?

We'll talk with city council, obviously.

And your advice to them, your consultation.

We provided the information you're talking about was the again, that the again, the water discharge will not adversely affect our drinking water, whether they want to, deny a misspoke utility district like they did was entirely up to them.

They made that decision.

Fortunately or unfortunately, however, you see, this issue, they can just go to the state level and get their permit, get their municipal utility district.

And as I understand, they're clearing some land in that area.

And reportedly, when do you expect to be asked to put the water lines in?

Well, they will be putting the water lines, and all we do is provide the water up to their property line.

They have to build all the infrastructure.

I would say, construction, depending on if there's litigation, is 18 to 24 months away.

Litigation, I think, is the key pending.

All right.

Well, thank you very much for all that information.

Robert Fuentes, CEO and president of San Antonio Water System.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Back in 2020, voters here in San Antonio approved a ready to work program.

Since then, it's gotten some criticism how slowly it rolled out.

Now, to talk about the latest numbers and the impact from the city's point of view is Mike Ramsey, executive director of workforce development for the City of San Antonio.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thank you for having us.

What do you say to those?

First of all, a big picture from what they have seen and headlines from years ago to now and even some criticism now, about $200 million program projections of 40,000 workers.

At first, I mean, over a number of years, getting training was ramped down.

What do you say to them that it hasn't had a return on investment yet?

I would say that Ready to Work has already had a significant return on investment in the individuals lives, who have found job placement as a result of them further in their education, receiving the support and getting connected to family sustaining jobs right here in San Antonio.

On average, our typical to work participant is a single mom raising multiple children in a home, coming into the program, making about $11,000 a year.

When they exit the program, they're making about $45,000 a year on average, an increase in that household of $34,000.

What are the bulk of those jobs and the training for them?

So those jobs range everywhere from registered nursing to CDL, heavy tractor and truck drivers to electricians to accountants, to medical assistance, to forklift operators and everything in between.

There's about 62 occupations that are available through the Ready Work initiative to help somebody figure out wherever they're at in that stage of life, find success for them.

What were the main problems?

Starting it from scratch and ramping it up?

I understand it was getting partnerships, getting grants or getting the money to do it, getting the staff aligned.

Was that why it was kind of slow there at the beginning.

It just takes some time.

It was passed by the voters in November of 2020.

We started actually enrolling participants in the training programs in May of 2022.

That time is collecting partners.

The work is being done not by the city directly, but by people who are already in operation in this ecosystem in San Antonio, the local Workforce board, Alamo Community Colleges, Project Quest, who this whole program was based around, their model pursues me in partnership with them for 33 years and restore education with the original contractors the city were negotiating contracts with, and framing out a system to be able to collect all the data and report that out in real time to the community.

What are the numbers in terms of those who have applied for the program, been in it and then graduated to get a job?

We've had about 25,000 roughly people complete the intake process, that application process.

We had about 16,000 people enrolled in education and training programs.

The majority of those people are still in those education, the training programs.

It raises anything from short term, six week credential all the way up to a four year degree.

We had about 6000 people complete training and about 4000 people get those jobs again, with $34,000 more a year on average going into them in just direct income.

Has the strategy changed in terms of the kind of training and the as a job training, the focus shrunk a little bit.

So you can get those people in those jobs.

Maybe you can't focus on others.

Where are our.

Elected officials, in their wisdom?

Realized they needed constant feedback from the local employer community.

So they set up an advisory board, made up primarily of employers that give feedback on which occupations are in demand in the local community, and they approve or disapprove the list of occupations that our dollars can be funding.

As far as to make sure that people who are going through training have actual jobs on the other side of that.

That advisory board is constantly tweak the occupation list to make sure that we're only training people for jobs that are in-demand locally.

Keeping an eye in mind, things like that.

Artificial intelligence is transforming the workforce landscape tremendously.

We're trying to stay in front of it.

We have a few programs for AI literacy that are going to be impactful for no matter which occupational field that you pursue.

We're trying to make sure that those people who are designing those AI, a genetic AI agents that we have training programs that are available for those and those in the early stages of being developed, because we know that if we fall behind, the AI curve is only going to push a city who's already one of the most impoverished cities in the country further behind.

And how does it work exactly?

Do you give people, stipends?

Do you give them, just free tuition, free childcare that many people need?

How does it work?

So we don't have stipends where we're not paying people to go back to school.

Going back to school is an important decision that every person has to make, and it's one of the biggest challenges that I think that we face in having someone to rearrange their life.

Again, with multiple kids in home, who's going to watch the kids warm in class and figure in that part of the world out while they pursue their as a further their education so they can get more skills so they can get a better job.

But we do have wraparound support such as childcare support, transportation.

If you need bus vouchers from VA, we can supply that.

If your car breaks down in the middle of your training or when you get free at that first two job, we have an emergency support fund up to $1,500 that can help get that car fixed and get you back on track.

If you're trying to focus on your studies and your lights are about to get cut off, that money can also cover the cost of that liability.

Facing eviction.

If you need some assistance covering a portion of your rent, that emergency fund can assist that with too, because you want to take some of those barriers out of the way.

Because remember, we're dealing with people who have faced challenges all of their life, many of them who have never seen success in the systems that are in place to help them.

Which is why Ready to Work wants that support to help, to get them over the hump.

They've got the grit, they got the wheel, they got the desire.

We want to help to create that opportunity.

How do you qualify?

What are the qualifications?

Is there a minimum or maximum wage that they are making now?

Tell us about that.

So to qualify you have to be under 250% of the federal poverty level.

It's about $36,000 for an individual, about $80,000 for a family of four.

Why is that important?

Because we have something called the Alice population.

The United Way has done a great job studying this.

They are working, but they're not making enough money to make ends meet.

The working poor is what I like to call it, that working poor in San Antonio is a huge group.

That's who we saw on those food bank lines when this was approved by the voters, people who was one paycheck away from disaster.

So we want to try to help those people to get over the hump.

So 18 years old eligible work in the United States.

And you meet that that income criteria willing to take some assessments because we want to make sure we set you up for success.

And you have to be a willing participant looking for work once you finish this program.

And so when you come in, a lot of people at 18 or whatever age, if they're working, they have kids they may not know what they're good at, what they want to get into.

You do these assessments, but do you have certain job titles that okay, maybe you better for this, like specifically after that assessment.

So again, the partners the city contracts, they've been doing this work for decades here in the city.

They're experts at helping to align people with the right career path for them based on the assessments that they take.

So absolutely.

Yes.

I saw a headline last week about Alamo colleges.

You mentioned them and ready to Work, and it seemed like there was a new partnership.

Are you gaining more partnerships?

UTSA has a cyber range program.

I understand they're working with you and then other employers.

That is absolutely correct.

We want to expand that partnership with UTSA, that cyber range, and then venturing into artificial intelligence is something we hope to do in the near future.

Very near future with UTSA.

Alamo colleges has been a partner from the very start.

When this program began, they were at the initial stages of it being developed and formed, and one of our original partners, we've added Hallmark University and Goodwill Industries recently, and we're seeing phenomenal results from them in the first nine months of their partnership.

We're ready to work.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Appreciate it.

It's been in the news.

Wanted to explore this.

Mike Ramsey Executive director of workforce development talking about ready to work in San Antonio.

Thanks.

Thank you sir.

On reporters roundtable this week, we're looking at a couple of stories that have been percolating.

You could say in the news for some time, but some significant developments this week, the first of which is the San Antonio Philharmonic canceling the rest of its season.

Sanford, now an editor in chief of the San Antonio Current.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Yeah, great to be here.

And I should correct something there.

In the words of Roberto Trevino, the CEO of the San Antonio Feel Harmonic.

They have not canceled the rest of the season.

They have just canceled the previously scheduled seven concerts they had through the remainder of the season.

I spoke to him yesterday afternoon and he said that they're going to try to schedule some concerts, including their annual, children's concerts, which they're young people's concerts which take place at schools, and that there might be some other shows at various venues and in various configurations, maybe not including the.

Whole, but they're still working on that.

They're trying to get there.

Yeah, they're trying to trying to do some stuff, for the remainder of this season.

But the stuff that was on the books, which was seven concerts ranging from anything from, you know, a Bach, mass and B minor to the Fiesta Pops show are now off the table.

Now, this dates back.

Well, aside from 30, 40 years and support for the symphony and then the Philharmonic now, dates back more recently to, the Scottish Rite Temple.

Yeah.

There there are sort of, I think three things that have factored into this development.

Just a week before them making the announcement about the cancellation of these shows, Jeffrey Kane, the esteemed musical director, conductor, pianist who was, directing the the symphony left.

You know, his pedigree includes times for the L.A.

Chamber Orchestra.

I think there were there was a lot of excitement about him coming in and being associated with the San Antonio Philharmonic.

He has not did not say in his statement why he left.

It's not something the, Philharmonic has addressed either.

But when I talked to Trevino, yesterday, he said that part of the reason they're having to basically scrap all these concerts is because, you know, Kane had a special skill set, and they've got somebody stepping in the assistant, musical director for the leap, Tristan.

And they wanted to have stuff that he was more suited to do.

Is that the whole story?

We'll see.

Because as you pointed out, yes.

They also have a dispute going on with the, Scottish Rite Masonic group that owns the Scottish Rite Temple downtown.

100 year old building, beautiful building that the symphony and excuse me, the Philharmonic had wanted to make their permanent home and announced a big deal in the in the fall of 2024 to make their permanent home.

Eventually they were basically locked out of the building, by the Scottish.

Right.

Masons.

And there was a subsequent legal filing in which the, the Masons said that the, the Philharmonic had pledged to pony up $750,000 to help them take on some very seriously needed upgrades to the building.

I don't know if you've been in there, but the air conditioning Hvac systems are antiquated.

Don't really keep up.

There are issues with, disability compliance in there, and and those are just the short term needs, when I, you know, in 2024, when I talked to, folks from the temple and from the, Philharmonic, they were in agreement that this was like millions of dollars, perhaps tens of millions of dollars needed to be put into that facility to get it.

Which isn't realistic for the Philharmonic to raise at this point.

Having trouble raising money, you can say.

Period.

Absolutely.

And that gets back to the other thing.

The third, the third thing I was going to mention is that, you know, late last year, they started canceling concerts and they canceled the concert as recently as the classics for shows, which were supposed to happen, I think it was last weekend.

And in correspondence with musicians, Trevino said.

I mean, there are financial reasons that we're having to to cancel these concerts.

In addition to.

And the.

Scottish Rite.

With the snowball effect of all the bad publicity making it even tougher, maybe to raise money.

What's your what's your gut on the outlook?

Yeah, absolutely.

I think they're now faced with a situation where they've had a lot, had a lot of, of, you know, bad things rolling their way.

And the the more sort of tentative an arts organization looks, the harder it is for them to raise money.

And I've certainly talked to people in the, in the corporate fundraising community that have said, you know, they have gone to the well, they meaning the, you know, the Philharmonic have gone to the well a lot.

And they I think, you know, from what I'm hearing from folks in that community, it's going to be harder and harder for them to continue to go back and say, hey, you know, when you gave us that last money, we said, we're going to do this, give us some more money.

You know, there was one person I spoke to, who declined to be named but was very familiar with two of the biggest corporate donors in town and said both of them have more or less shut the door on the Philharmonic.

I know the story that's been out there in the news as a rumor.

First, this week, the Express-News is reporting it and they are pulling an endorsement over it.

Is the rumors that Tony Gonzales has had an affair.

Congressman and again, rare move by the Express News to pull an endorsement, especially right now.

Yeah, absolutely.

The story, is, Gonzales is a Republican who represents the 23rd Congressional District.

Which part of San Antonio whole swath the border region, was, you know, a staffer of his, Regina Santos Avila's committed suicide.

Last fall was a headline making local story.

And shortly after it happened, you saw a right wing, blog, circulating rumors that, she had had an affair with, Gonzalez.

You saw a British tabloid, report that about a month later and, in November, Gonzalez appeared at the Texas Tribune Festival and said, the rumors are completely untruthful.

And now this Express News story that, you know, that they.

Say they've confirmed it through text messages and.

Yeah, they, they spoke to to somebody inside the office who claims to have been familiar with the situation and saw at least one text message in which the woman, said she was having an affair with the boss.

And this certainly, from what I've seen, is the the most deeply reported story on the particular issue.

Yeah.

And it's interesting that in conjunction with that, the The Express News, in a pretty scathing editorial, pulled their endorsement from Gonzalez and said he has questions to answer.

Noteworthy, they didn't endorse anybody else in that race, even though they in the.

Republican.

Side.

On the Republican side, even though in the Democrat side they did endorse somebody.

And do you think, coming as it is, this will have an effect on the election?

I mean, we're just starting.

I mean, it's entirely possible that that is a district that has been it's.

Become a news story.

It's one of those we kind of don't usually touch.

It's the personal life.

Right.

But in this case, as the Express News decided in their editorial board, it affects judgment.

Yeah.

I think you're absolutely right.

And because of the denial earlier.

Yeah, absolutely.

I think you're right there.

And I do think it could be a deciding factor.

You know, it'll be interesting to see if in the Republican primary they advance.

Brandon Herrera, the politically inexperienced YouTuber who is running against Gonzalez, who has certainly a lot of baggage related to his controversial YouTube clips, you know, is he the kind of person that's going to be able to, even in a more red district?

That the 23rd has been redrawn to be?

Will he be able to beat a Democrat in the general election, given his, his, you know.

We'll come back and tell us that whoever you're picking after, all the primaries.

We'll see how that goes.

Yeah.

Thanks very much.

Sanford.

Now an editor in chief of the San Antonio Current.

Appreciate your.

Time.

Great to be here.

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

You can watch this show again.

You can watch any previous shows or download them as podcasts.

Just go to KLRN.org.

I'm Randy Beamer and we'll see you next time.

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