Speaker 1: On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele do follow Speaker 2: San Antonio is a fast growing fast moving community with something new happening every day.

And that's why each week we go on the record with the Newsmakers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the reporters round table to talk about the latest news stories with the journalists behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on Speaker 1: Army buddy, I'm Randy Beamer.

Thank you for joining us for this edition of on the record, right in the middle of another big cold front coming to San Antonio.

And one of the things we're talking about right off the bat here is should seniors.

And those with disabilities have a freeze in their CPS and saws rate.

That is a proposal, a one of many brought by a district to Councilman Jaylen, McKee Rodriguez.

Thank you very much for joining us.

Thank you for having us.

It was one of a number of ideas that you're bringing to council.

Tell us what this would do.

Speaker 2: So this one specifically would freeze the rate for any future rate increases so that they wouldn't apply for seniors and persons with disabilities.

And the reason why, as we saw quite a bit, that, you know, as we were going door to door distributing resources during the last freeze, these are people who I have not been connected with their families in so long are not able to go out and get resources.

And so ha saving that little bit of money might help make the difference for them.

Speaker 1: And I think it's interesting.

These CCRS, a city council reviews basically request that you, you submit to other council members so that this can come before the whole council.

You have a number of them, and this really shows how your average citizen can come to a council person with a concern, and then you get it before the entire city council.

It takes that process.

Speaker 2: Yes, there's actually a few processes.

You can get things done through the budget.

You can get things done by working with city staff and you can get things done through these requests.

And I think this is one of those formal ways that you show that you have the support of other council members.

Speaker 1: And one of the things that you had brought up before, but you are again, bringing it to council is an office of crime and recidivism prevention.

Is that right?

Speaker 2: So that would make it so that we have experts in the field of criminology who are making policy and budgeting recommendations for city council on how we can prevent crime.

So to change the way the city addresses crime, because right now it's very reactionary, SFPD in and of itself is responsive.

And so we need something to supplement and complement that by preventing.

Speaker 1: And when you bring up these kinds of ideas, how long would that take?

And the rate freeze idea for CPS and saws to take effect, Speaker 2: It could take months.

So it'll go to the mayor decides when it gets agenda is on the governance committee, the governance committee then votes for it to go to either another council committee or to the full council.

So there's still quite a bit of process Speaker 1: And this kind of thing.

You also have to have the signatures of several other council people before it goes to the council, to the mayor.

Speaker 2: Yes, that's what the CCR window.

Speaker 1: And how about the idea of applying rules to payday lenders that now for signature and personal loans, which is something that's kind of new?

Yes.

Speaker 2: So, so the city has an ordinance in place that protects residents from predatory lenders by applying regulations to auto and payday auto and payday loans.

And so since then, predatory lenders have created signature and personal loans and to get away from those.

So it's a loophole.

So this ordinance would, or the expansion would close that loophole Speaker 1: Because we've had that first ordinance since about 2013.

So it's been in place for some time.

Also the live release rate for animals, stray animals was up past 90% because we had such a straight pocket, but you have council requests because we're not doing so well.

Yes, Speaker 2: We're not doing so well.

And a lot of it is because the pandemic, we weren't able to, able to spay and neuter so much the hospital, the hospital that we have currently, the vets there that are doing surgeries are performing way outside of their actual capacity.

And so we need a plan and that's going to help us increase our live release rate.

Speaker 1: There are a lot of affordable housing projects right now in the works and more coming up, especially with a bond issue to provide more money for that.

But you have a request to deal with those projects differently.

Yes.

Speaker 2: How would that up?

So one of the biggest problems that we have is that we say, okay, yes, you here, you can have this contract and these incentives, and you're going to do a displacement study, this displacement impact study.

And which means, which means that you'll you'll study the effects of how a displacement, how residents are going to be impacted by a development.

And so it's happening way after way too late.

We can't be proactive from that point.

We have to respond to whatever displacement is happening.

So this will make it so that maybe the finalist that we're considering awarding incentives or contracts to they do that first.

And if a project is going to displace an entire neighborhood or lead to that kind of impact, then maybe that's not the kind of development will be, Speaker 1: Was this out of the Allentown Apache projects where people were concerned after they had learned what was supposed to happen to their Speaker 2: Housing?

Not necessarily, but I think instances like that definitely do apply to, to this.

Speaker 1: And there's also one that you'd like to, it's a food access master plan you want develop, what, what would that, Speaker 2: So what that would do is it would make it, so we acknowledged right now that there are food deserts that there's limited access to quality affordable produce for a lot of people and residents, but we haven't yet created a plan for that.

And so this would create a structured strategic plan on how the city can use all the tools that it's a resort at th at its disposal.

Speaker 1: And this is interesting, kind of a look into how city council works, say people out there, they hear one of these ideas.

It's a great idea for them.

What's the best way to have an impact.

Speaker 2: Oh, so I would say, call my office or call your council person's office and say, Hey, I heard this idea and I really love it.

I would love if you, as a council person would support it.

Speaker 1: What is the first one that you think will get done?

Speaker 2: Oh, I think the least controversial one will be the payday loan one.

I think the most timely right now would be, Speaker 1: Well, that rate is for right now in the cold for people who have, you know, looking ahead, what would that do though to the budget, which is a whole different question that I'm sure you're going to get in?

Speaker 2: Well, I think what has to happen with it is a conversation with the rate advisory committee and the restructuring has to take this into account.

So I think this would be super tight, Speaker 1: Especially as we're going into in March, that rate increase for CPS, but this would also affect saws.

Speaker 2: Yeah.

It would affect CPS and saws and it wouldn't apply to this rate increase.

That's about to happen about future rate increases.

So the next one would be like 2020.

Speaker 1: Well, thanks very much.

Jalen Mickey Rodriguez, counselor district two.

Thank you very much for coming in, moving now to COVID, as we are working to get more tests nationally here in San Antonio, it's a little different story as well as having to deal with different kinds of misinformation right now, health experts are having to deal with that.

And one of them at the top here as the medical director of Metro health, John joins us.

Thank you very much for coming in.

First of all, what is that misinformation that you really want to clear up right now?

Yeah.

Thank you for giving us a chance to explain that isolation is not just for five days.

So for everybody isolation under the CDC guidelines, which admittedly are just more complex now, as we get farther along, isolation applies to people who did test positive.

And the five days I think of it as five plus five, and it's only for people who are asymptomatic or who have really mild symptoms.

So by day five, you're getting better in that case.

It's the five days at home and then five days of correctly and consistently masking in public And five days from your first symptoms.

Because some people aren't getting tested until maybe day two or three, or they don't get tested at all.

And just assume they have COVID Five days since your symptoms or five days since your positive test, if you don't have symptoms.

Yes.

And how about after you don't have symptoms anymore.

If you get a test then X number of days until you either go back to work or don't have.

So right now the CDC is not recommending testing out of isolation.

And this is where we have to get into the even more complex discussion of what kinds of tests to use if you're going to try that.

Because if you use a PCR test, which is, that's what we've got in the free tests around San Antonio, both the community labs and curative tests are PCR tests.

Those can stay positive for a good long time weeks.

I mean, the CDC has guidance is don't retest for 90 days after you've been infected because the virus levels can wax and wane and you can get these false positives.

If you, if you feel you must, even though it's against guidance, then you would use a home test for that.

And then if you test positive, you continue to isolate How accurate are those home tests compared To the piece, right?

It's going to depend on the brand, but when you compare the results of home tests versus PCR tests, it's, it matches at least 85%.

Some of the other ones are better, but look, I, here's another common point of, of misunderstanding, which is, you know, a lot of those tests come to, to a box.

And that is because you really need to think of it as a single two-part test.

It's not two different tests.

And by that, I mean, when you read the instructions, you take one test and then depending on the brand 24 to 36 hours, or maybe 24 to 48 hours later, you do a second one.

And that's because as you have suggested, the, these tests are not as sensitive.

They're not as likely to pick up COVID by themselves, but when you have a test, that's not very sensitive.

If you repeat it, that boosts the sensitivity a bunch.

So in order to get the labeled accuracy, you actually do need to do it exactly as labeled, which is going to be those two consecutive tests.

What kind of masks should we be wearing these days?

A lot of talk about surgical mask versus cloth versus Because Omicron is more easily transmissible.

Well, the, the rule is still the same as it's been since the beginning.

It's just a lot of times people didn't pay as much attention to having a mask that fits well.

Okay.

Now, for a lot of people, that's easier with a K in 95, just because of the way they're designed, but we all have different size heads and different shapes faces.

So some people you can achieve that for some people with a medical mask that, that has some sort of a fitter or elastic, you can take a medical mask and then put a fabric mask over it to close up the gaps, but you want to not have gaps regardless of the kind of mask you're using.

The other questions that I'd get from people, I'm sure you would call it misinformation.

If I can still get COVID after I get the vaccine and why should I get the vaccine?

What are you?

It would be because you will have a milder form of COVID definitely the vaccination, even just the two, you know, the primary series, two initial doses with the MRI and the vaccines are very effective at preventing hospitalization and death.

The booster does give extra protection.

The reason that you want to get the vaccine is so that you're less likely to be hospitalized, less likely to die, less likely to transmit to other people, right?

And now there is an issue, I guess, with some people and fake vaccination sites or fake testing sites, I should say, Yes, we've gotten about 14 complaints that we've investigated so far.

And the ones that are the most troubling to me are the ones where we go out there and there's nothing there.

So we don't have anything actionable.

We can't follow up.

And in general, these are people who say, they've already given money up front, which is a huge red flag, any kind of pop-up site.

I, I, they, if you have health insurance, they can charge your health insurance on the back end, but they shouldn't be charging you upfront.

If you don't have health insurance, there is a reimbursement pool that the federal government has.

So that's more complicated, but you know, if we have enough free, good sites in San Antonio, if you go to S COVID-19 that San antonio.gov, and look there, that's the way to make sure that, Well, we can talk about this all day.

There's more information though at the Metro health website, great information there.

And I guess the bottom line mascot where you feel it's appropriate, get boosted, get vaccinated and stay home.

If you're sick, like my mom would say, all right, thanks very much Dr.

Gender Lu medical director of Metro health, As we talk about COVID one of the symptoms, the effects that doesn't seem to be going away as the stress, the anxiety and depression, and here in San Antonio, there's a group that's trying to take their message really out into more and more schools.

And joining us is Tali Joel of the mobile, mental wellness, collaborative the CEO.

Thank you very much for coming in.

How big a problem is this still today?

And there are new studies coming out every day, since it's more and more, Speaker 2: There are new studies coming out every day, but mental health challenges have been around forever, I think because of COVID.

And because of the fact that we have now shown a light on the fact that everyone deals with some kind of mental health challenge, I think that's what COVID did and that more and more people are coming out of the woodwork to say, you know what?

I don't feel great.

And it's not particularly in my body as much as it is in my mind.

And I think that's the new way that we are talking about mental health.

And that's why programs like this exist and also are so needed at this point.

Speaker 1: We're with Jewish family services, one of the five groups in the health collaborative, but this is expanding.

And you were in a new position, correct here in San Antonio to expand it further into schools.

Tell us about that.

Speaker 2: So we came together a group of five organizations to really work on bringing our organization mental health services directly into the schools.

We started this actually a year before COVID in south San ISD because a group of students decided to come together and say to their score school board, how do you expect us to succeed in school?

When we don't have the mental health resources we need?

So a group of five organizations came together to answer that call and go into their schools and bring accessibility into a part of the city that had very limited mental health accessibility.

Speaker 1: It was between school districts in how they can help kids with mental health issues.

And now there are more and more school districts asking for Speaker 2: Correct.

We are in south San ISD, Harlandale ISD, Edgewood ISD, S a I S D and Jetson ISD.

Speaker 1: And what does it mean to say mobile?

Speaker 2: So what, what we did with our five organization, we mobilized ourselves.

We are going into the school communities and not just providing services for the students.

What we're doing is providing them for the communities and in a centralized location.

So people, 80% of people never return to their initial, to their initial mental health appointments because of transportation and accessibility issues.

So we are bringing that we are mobilizing ourselves and bringing ourselves into the schools and bringing the services to the students, to the teachers administration and to the, Speaker 1: And you're now getting more resources, I assume, because you're part of a larger group, the mental, I'm sorry, the Meadows Institute across Texas, they've been doing mental health awareness and programs for Speaker 2: That is correct Meadows.

Mental health policy Institute has a team that will help us to really shape and define what this program will look like and be able to expand into as many school districts, hopefully who want a need this, because right now we are in a mental health crisis.

We are seeing this every single day.

We're seeing kids, we're seeing the suicide rates expand.

We are seeing homicidal rates, stress and anxiety are through the roof for not only our students, but for our teachers and administrators and a program like this takes the approach that we need to first educate and tell you why we're coming in and why mental health and wellness is just as important as physical health.

Speaker 1: While we're talking about that, say, I'm a family member of someone I'm concerned about, or a friend.

What's my first phone call.

Speaker 2: First phone call is initially to the ISD that you're in.

And then each ISD has a website and they have one where that's dedicated to family members and teachers, and it's, it's a click of a button and they fill out a very short form.

And then the school really manages what students need to be a priority on getting these health help and resources.

Speaker 1: And there's ARPA money.

Now, American restaurant had money that should be going toward mental health.

In fact, it's directed for that.

Is it getting there?

Speaker 2: Yeah.

So luckily the city and the county have actually put some of the ARPA money towards the mobile mental wellness.

This year.

We actually have a lot of money coming into the expansion of this program from our city and county because they see that this program is working.

And because they see that the need is growing on a daily basis, we have additional school districts calling us on a weekly basis saying, please can you, can you guys mobilize yourselves, get together and do this?

Speaker 1: And we're about out of time, but maybe the most important question.

If I'm a family member of someone, how do I talk to them?

I, I shouldn't say, oh, I understand.

Or it's just the time that we're going through.

How do you talk to them in that first few minutes?

Speaker 2: I think some of it is, is first by listening and really hearing.

I think a lot of us are wanting to respond because it's so anxiety, Britain to bring up the fact that we have a mental health challenge.

So really it's hearing what that family member says.

And then by being able to be vulnerable, be transparent and say these last couple of years, because of COVID, I haven't had the easiest time for myself.

We've all have not come out of this unscathed in some way.

Speaker 1: Definitely.

Well, thank you very much.

I know there's more information that you have on the website at the mobile mental wellness, collaborative CEO Talley teleradiology.

Thank you very much.

Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me Speaker 1: A controversial housing project near her Lotus is moving forward as the San Antonio water system board.

Okay.

To hooking up that development to a saws water, joining us to talk about that is Elena bris, who is the environment and water reporter for the San Antonio express news.

Thanks for coming in.

Now you covered this recently with the, the water system board and the vote.

It's a little technical for some people, but boil it down for us.

Pardon the pun.

But how does this work?

Why is it so controversial?

Right.

So there's an area that they're hoping that developers are hoping to hoping to develop on the north west side of San Antonio.

And it's controversial because it's over the Edwards aquifer contributing zone.

And it's only just a few miles from the Edwards aquifer recharge zone.

So these are areas that are really vulnerable to our water supply.

If contaminants get into those areas, they can go all the way down to like what we're drinking.

So it's really important that people are careful over there.

So there's this new development and it's high density.

And it's one of the first high density developments of that kind in that area.

So environmentalist and residents are very much opposed to it in order for that development to be built into work is that they're going to have to get water from saws, pumped up over there.

And that went to the saws board was that they were asking for approval of water from saws to that development.

And as I understand it, saws is required to provide water to people in that area, but not necessarily wastewater treatment.

So it could have been septic if it was lower density, people would have septic tanks.

And that was the original plan.

Right?

Right.

So that's like an issue is that like the boundaries of what sods can provide.

So for this area, they have to provide water, but the boundary for wastewater does not hit that area.

It kind of just before, so they don't have to provide wastewater.

So then now this development is going to have to decide whether or not they want to do septic, but since it's like a higher development, as you said, they're going to probably have to go with their own wastewater treatment plants.

This is one of those things.

The mayor said there are all non attractive options, but it's going to happen more and more out in what's called the city's extra territorial jurisdiction.

The city has a plan for this that they've had since 2010, but it was just a guide really, right?

Yeah.

It's the north sector plan.

So that was pretty much for them to decide how can the developments happening no matter what, how best can the city develop?

And so there are different tiers for the north sector plan.

Some of them might be like rural tiers.

So you can only have so much development in that area.

And sometimes it can be like urban tiers.

So you could have a little bit more for this specific development.

It's more, I think it's a rural tier.

So it's like they're having this large development in something that like probably shouldn't have it.

And basically they want to get a waiver more or less for this.

And now they did agree when our homes, and this is the ranch subdivision that they're proposing.

They did agree to some restrictions in terms of open space and things like that.

Yeah.

So it's 50% open space they agree to.

And that doesn't mean like a golf course or that doesn't mean tennis courts.

That's like little open space, like what it was naturally.

And they also agreed to be only 30% impervious cover and impervious cover something where the water can't seep into the ground.

Like it's supposed to, it kind of just rolls right off like a sidewalk or a, a driveway.

And we've had a big, highly publicized controversy over this in the past when the big golf course was planned for the north side, is this going to be something you're covering more and more and more, and is the city going to address this in a bigger way you think?

Yeah, I, for sure I'm going to be covering it more and more development in the environment is a huge deal in San Antonio right now.

And I do think the city is starting to realize that we have to have larger scale discussions about what we have to do going forward.

Could this be the example for others going forward if they had to negotiate that 50% untouched land, 30% impervious coverage?

Yeah, I think so.

I think it would be a good idea to have these discussions.

I mean, the developers seem to open to have discussions with the environmentalist and with the community, but as you can tell, like the people in the community still don't want it there, even with all these concessions.

So I think there's more discussions that need to be happening As a background and as a science reporter, seeing the possibility of a wastewater treatment plant on that land that would feed into the high Lotus Creek that feeds into the aquifer.

What would you, Yeah.

So that's, you're going to see a lot of like, so what happens with wastewater is that it's going to have these nutrients in it and that's, what's going to be running off into the Creek.

And then that's, what's running into the aquifer nutrients.

Like a lot of nutrients can cause out harmful algae blooms, which are really impactful to the ecosystem.

But I will also say a problem with high density developments like that is the runoff from those developments.

So when there's a, there's a big storm, something that's running off as pesticides, it's gas from your car, it's dog feces, that's all running down into the lake or into the Creek and then that's running into the aquifer.

And so that's a problem as well.

Okay.

And quickly we're almost out of time, but Medina lake that is down, that's another thing I'm going to be covering.

And how, how severe is that right now?

Oh, I actually just checked it today.

And it is at 24.9% capacity, which is really low.

It hasn't been that low in three or four years when it was down at 3%.

And it's, if we don't get a rain, it's going to keep going down.

I wish we had more time for that, but we don't.

So you can read about it from Elena brisses coverage and the environment and water report of the San Antonio express news.

Thank you very much for coming in and thank you for joining us.

We appreciate it every week here on the, on the record, you can see some of the latest issues around San Antonio.

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