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 this edition of On the Record.

I'm Randy Beamer, and this week we are starting with the Man in charge.

Our new man in charge of dealing with some old problems here in San Antonio.

The new director of animal care services, Jonathan Gary, thank you very much for coming in.

Thank you for having.

You've been in charge all of us a month and a half now.

Not back even yet.

First of all, what do you what do you think of San Antonio?

You came from Oklahoma City, worked in animal care services there for 25 years.

People might wonder what's.

What drew you to San Antonio?

You know, it's interesting.

I think the biggest thing that drew me here was the way that the city's investing in animal care services.

You know, the last few years, it's been apparent that they they want to ensure that animals are cared for and that our residents are protected.

And and that was huge to see that, you know, across the country, a lot of municipal shelters are underfunded right in and it looks like, not just looks like they're showing it by their actions, but the city leadership here has, has, are investing in animal care services.

And, that was that was really part of the biggest thing.

I come from Oklahoma City, like I said, and it's, severely underfunded shelter there.

And, we had to do a lot with very little.

And, so it was really that was the most exciting thing about, San Antonio.

I loved Oklahoma City.

I love my 25 years there.

And I knew in order for me to leave there, I needed to go somewhere where there was, the potential to make some real change.

And I saw that here in San Antonio very early on.

How about the problems here versus there?

People think in San Antonio because we've had a lot of, headlines in the past couple of years about dog mauling.

We had one night about a week ago, loose dogs, not necessarily stray dogs, but animals not being kept by their owners and their property.

Is it bigger here than across the country, or is it just because we here are focused on it because of those things?

You know, obviously there's there's been recent incidents that I think has brought it to the forefront in.

But I but honestly, a lot of the challenges that you guys are facing here that we're facing here now and San Antonio is, are the same in most communities, most large municipal is probably see some form of this in some way.

And and what San Antonio has a million and a half people.

So there's a lot of dogs here.

And so that brings its own, I want to say unique issues, but it kind of magnifies them a little bit.

Right?

They're they're much larger in the sense that there's more there's more dogs here.

And I think you the potential for bad things to happen is a little bit greater.

But then there's also now more talk about it, more pressure.

Do you feel that coming in as a new guy, what are you going to do about this problem of dog mauling and stray dogs?

How do you answer that to people that just meet you?

Yeah, there's a ton of pressure.

I will say I and I knew that coming and taking the job, I knew that was going to be a high priority for our community.

And, and, and I'm and it's obviously I made it a high priority for me right away.

And, you know, and I think the way that we, that we address that is by getting out in the community, trying to be, you know, not just educate, but provide resources where we can, in and really engage with the, with our residents and what's happening and what they can do to be to help with those problems.

And we've already begun that process with some pilot programs and some neighborhoods, where we're actually going in boots on the ground, talking with people, providing resources and then trying to just ensure that our residents are aware of what's required them by law and how they can be a responsible pet owner and, at the end of the day, I'm a firm believer that most people want to do the right thing given the opportunity to do so.

And it's not just pet owners I guess you have to deal with.

You also have to, educate everybody that if there's a problem, see something, say something, and there the latest case may highlight that it's still being investigated.

But there was a charge brought in some cases, people don't say, you know, don't want to get their neighbor mad at them.

So they don't say anything about those pets until something happens.

You need to get the word out that you want everybody to be part of the solution that you if if there's a problem, an animal in your neighborhood, what do you want people to do?

We want them to call 311.

You know, we want to know about those issues.

And, we're going to do our very best to get there as quickly as we can to to address those concerns.

We want to try to be proactive, right?

We don't want to be reactive.

And so we need in order for us to do that, that we really need the community's help.

We need them to report incidences.

We need them to report concerns if they have concerns about animals.

And, you know, we can only do what the law allows.

But we definitely want to know about them.

And if we can address them before something happens, we definitely want to be able to do that.

And what the law allows, the city, because of the problem of a mauling a couple of years ago, once in the legislature passed a bill through the Senate, and the state House governor then vetoed it.

We have another legislative session going on.

We're up there trying to to do something again for San Antonio.

Yeah, we're currently working with our government affairs department and looking at, you know, why it was vetoed.

What happened?

Are the things that we can do differently?

We really want to strengthen the dangerous, state statutes.

And so we want to work with other cities and our, our, our state government to figure out what we can do to, to be able to do that.

Do you think sometimes we expect too much from animal care services, from a person who's going to come out and fix the problem, of dog mauling?

Hey, it's it's you're the guy.

You fix it.

You know.

Yeah, yeah, I will say that a little bit.

You know, we, again, we we're this is a community problem, right?

It's going to really take a community solution.

So our residents have to understand the importance.

It's not just about keeping your dog confined.

There's no it's not like there's no reason behind it.

Right?

It's about keeping your animals safe.

And it's about keeping your your neighbors safe.

You know, a lot of these attacks happened.

And we hear their owners will say things like, well, they've always been nice before.

This never happened before.

Well, they do.

Animals do strange things when they're in strange environments and when they're in situations that they may not have been in before.

And so sometimes we see these incidents happen from animals that have shown no previous aggression.

And it's just because animals in different environments can react differently.

So I think it's important that our residents, don't take those things lightly.

Don't think just because he's friendly in your home that it's okay to just let them out and run loose.

It's just it's just not and it's just not safe for them.

So we all have a responsibility to keep our pets safe, but also keep our, our neighbors safe.

And I think that's something you take seriously.

And spaying and neutering.

Now you have more more of that, more options availability for you to do that than than in past years.

That's right.

We're trying to increase pain.

Neutering is such an important part of that solution.

And reducing the number of animals, that are in our community.

We're in the process now of opening two brand new, clinics that hopefully be in the next few months will be open, that the city has invested in.

And we're looking forward to getting those open to increase that number.

You know, we're going to try to do over 40,000 spay neuter surgeries this year.

And and that's our goal.

And I believe we're going to get there.

Especially with the addition of these two new clinics.

What's the biggest challenge you think you face here coming in?

The volume of animals coming in.

You know, at the end of the day, there's there's a lot more animals coming in than we're able to get out.

And so we have to figure out what the solution to that is.

Obviously, I think increased adoptions, there's, there's some capacity that we're going to be able to do more adoptions, and we're going to try to get creative and do some fun things.

I think our community is really going to enjoy some of the things that we got planned.

As far as adoption events go, and want to be engaged and involved that way.

But ultimately, we do have to figure out how do we reduce those numbers coming in, because right now they're coming in faster than we can get them out.

Welcome to San Antonio.

Thank you very much for coming in.

And good luck with that.

Director of Animal Care Services, John Gary.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Water.

And what to do about Texas's water problems.

Well, that's going to be making a lot of headlines over the next few months as the Texas Legislature is going to be looking at making a huge investment in infrastructure and water.

And joining us to talk about water and issues even closer to San Antonio is and peace executive director of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance, not to be confused with the Edwards Aquifer Authority.

That is a separate quasi governmental agency.

You're a nonprofit.

Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance always like to do that.

Thank you.

Make clear.

Tell us, first of all, what you thought about when you heard that Governor Greg Abbott had made one of his so-called emergency items, the ones that they can talk about for the first 60 days?

Water.

Oh, we were absolutely delighted, because this has been an emergency item for us for going on years and getting more so as growth occurs in our area.

So, there's a number of water issues, that really need to be addressed.

We're also, because, Texas Living Waters, released a report last year on, how bad our water infrastructure was and how much water we are losing to leaks.

And what we had seen last session did not address that.

So we're hoping that fixing our water infrastructure or, to actually beneficially use the water that we have will be a top priority.

What are your top priorities?

For, the greater right.

We'll talk for lines, and we concentrate on a 21 county area in central Texas, which is the, Edwards and Trinity Aquifer areas.

So our top priorities, number one is, I think, reuse.

And so what we would like to see as, because it's not often mention and as an alternate water supply is the beneficial reuse of, treated sewage effluent.

And so we look at, there was an act of the legislature back in the 80s that created, the Alamo Water Reuse District, which had the unfortunate, acronym of crime.

But, they, Cra.

Yeah.

And and the legislature said, San Antonio, you're pumping too much out of the Edwards.

You're going to have to get in the infrastructure to reuse, your sewage effluent now that, is now controlled by source.

And it's been enormously successful.

So what we would like to see is, the legislature creating additional reuse districts in these high, high growth areas.

So we have, new subdivisions going in.

We could get that infrastructure.

And from the start, we conducted a study in Comal County and we found that, for instance, 20% of their groundwater was being used by the aggregate industry for dust suppression and industrial operations.

Now, that could easily be reuse water rather than water that.

We're talking drinking.

I guess gray water.

Is that the right term in the right place?

Because people might think of gray water as something that they, you know, comes right out of their, toilet or right out of.

No, this is treated sewage.

Right?

So it would be treated.

So what does the, when you say water reuse, and these districts, what would they do?

They would put in the infrastructure like San Antonio has done to reuse that wastewater effluent beneficially.

So, like here in San Antonio, we water, golf courses, we water Trinity University campus, we water Brackenridge Park.

And so all those non potable uses that it's appropriate for.

And then it saves us an enormous amount of water being pumped from the aquifer.

And then it would also, address a problem that we're having persistently is in that these new subdivisions with their wastewater treatment plants are wanting to discharge that effluent directly into waterways.

A lot of times, these waterways recharge the Edwards and Trinity aquifer.

So there's the potential to pollute our public and private well water supplies and to have, algae blooms in the creeks and things like that, because they're not Texas doesn't require very high treatment standards.

So it would kind of kill two birds with one stone.

Now, you think people might get confused about that at the same time?

Say, you know, there's protest.

And recently there was a protest about a new development, in the area that would go in and possibly have, treated effluent go into a Lotus creek.

At the same time, you're talking about using treated wastewater in different ways.

That people might be confused by that.

Yeah.

We would like to see it, beneficially reused, for industrial uses, for, irrigation.

And I think, going into the future that's going to, sewage effluent is frankly going to be one of our most secure water supplies.

So we might look at direct potable reuse, where the water is treated to drinking water standards and then used as a water supply, for a certain area.

What about the, that particular protest that we seen and made headlines here in San Antonio?

You're going to court over that?

Yes.

Why is that?

Why is it so important?

Well, that one's really important because, the the potential for polluting San Antonio's water supply is palpable.

With that, we have reports that the city commissioned, that say that, most likely, releasing any.

Well, putting sewage infrastructure in for that large the population.

You're talking about 3000 new people in that area, would have, negative impact on San Antonio's water supplies.

And that's because a lotus creek is a major recharge feature.

And then for the Trinity Aquifer and then flows right downstream into the Edwards Aquifer.

And so you're talking about a million gallons a day, and that water would be communicate with our Edwards water supplies.

Now, they do not treat out, say emerging contaminants, which are like, metabolize drugs and personal care products and things like that.

They do not treat out peer base, which are, the forever chemicals, which are a big cause of concern now.

And frankly, the treatment standards, do not meet the quality of water that's already in our ankle for.

And so we're very concerned about that case.

Now, that's a case that's in the lotus gray forest area.

But it would affect San Antonio.

Another of your priorities in Austin for the legislature is to give, localities more authority.

Yes, yes.

And and this is a huge problem because a lot of the development that's going on now in our hill Country region is not in an incorporated municipality where they have land use regulations and zoning and things like that.

The counties have been kept very limited as to what they can do by the state legislature.

And these areas are rapidly becoming urbanized.

And so you have the type of development that's typical for an urban development going into the counties.

But the county commissioners are very, very frustrated because they don't have the tools to use to actually make sure that, that these new developments are sustainable, are consistent with, the developments that are already around them.

And, you know, for the people who already live out there.

And so what we're looking at is, you know, I mean, it's an anathema to think about zoning for counties, but but here in the Hill Country area, they really need more, regulatory authority to manage, stormwater, and to manage building codes.

But the governor and Dan Patrick are notorious against local authority.

Yes.

You.

Well, and we're not looking at this statewide.

We're looking at this as, our 21 county area or whichever counties would opt in.

We have several of the high growth counties, where the county commissioners are really kind of begging for this type of authority because their constituents are like, why can't you do anything about this?

And they're like, well, the state won't let us.

And they're absolutely right.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Fascinating.

I know we're going to hear a lot more about water.

Over the next hundreds of years.

But Annalisa piece, thank you very much for coming in.

Executive director of the Greater Edwards Aquifer Alliance.

Thanks.

Thank you.

On Reporters Roundtable, a fascinating investigative piece is out just this week in the San Antonio Business Journal.

And it focuses on some deficiencies that were found in a major defense, maintenance program that goes on right now at Port San Antonio by the Boeing Company.

James McCandless, San Antonio Business Journal reporter.

Spent, I guess, a year on this.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thanks for having me back.

How did it how did you get the tip on this and what, you know, how did it evolve the story?

So about a year ago, last March, there was a labor complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board, from the Boeing facility, from employees claiming they were wrongly fired.

I wrote a story about that.

And then a couple months went by and, someone else, who used to work there, came forward, and we got to talking about, the defense maintenance operations there, and said that if you, if you look for these types of files, within, specific government agency, you will find a systemic issue with the defense maintenance programs that go on there.

And what are the defense?

A lot of people know that Boeing is there.

They do some work for, commercial.

They do some work for the government.

What do they do there at Port San Antonio?

How many people do we have here?

It's over like 3000 people.

It's it's, divided between the commercial and, defense, maintenance programs.

This, defense side works a lot on fighter jets.

And specifically in this story, the F-18, F-18, Super Hornet.

And they've had that contract.

It's over $1 billion since 2018.

And now this is a the deficiencies that you found date back from 2018.

What were they we're talking about?

Some pretty serious things that you found that have happened in the past.

They can be as small as, what's called foreign object debris.

A loose rag left somewhere near an engine or in a wing or in a panel.

A loose ball to that that isn't properly screening all the way leading up to what the government calls safety of flight concerns.

That is, if, these deficiencies are happening at a rate that, are leading to quality escapes, as they call it, and that can lead to, safety issues during operational flights.

If the government wasn't catching them at the.

Quality escapes, that basically means a problem, right?

That has to be.

Anything that's non conforming to what they call contract requirements.

And these were documented in certain kinds of reports.

When they were caught or how did it work.

Yeah.

After a Boeing.

I mean when the, when the individual things were caught, not one Boeing.

Right after Boeing presents completed work to the government, if the government inspector on site catches a deficiency, they file what's called a corrective action request, which can vary, different levels from minor to critical.

And, the most critical can lead to withholding of contract payments.

And there are hundreds of these corrective action requests that have been issued to Boeing over the years that have that spurred concern from government officials all the time.

And just sort of, shows a sort of systemic issue that is that was previously only familiar on the commercial side.

We see it now on the defense side.

Yeah.

Now, on the commercial side, people are familiar with the issues that Boeing had, with the super Max.

737.

This is totally different, but you mentioned both in your story, about concerns.

What what kind of concerns did you hear about from from people who work there.

Just that that there is a, you know, a culture that prioritizes speed over quality, and that the same stuff that we, like, we said, we know about on the commercial side, exists on the defense side.

Now, Boeing has said, to be fair, right, that, you know, these problems have been corrected because that's how you got the reports as they were corrected.

Tell me about their response.

And where are we now in what's going on?

They basically say that that that at the time they were responding to us, they had no corrective action requests active against them.

It requires a corrective action plan to be submitted by Boeing.

But the issue was that there's no way to know if that's true today, because it takes so long for the my request to come back from from the government agency in charge of this, that that could be true when they say that.

But it it couldn't necessarily be true while we're speaking.

Now, some might say, well, this you know, some of these things.

What are you talking about?

Oily rags left here and there all the way up there.

Any massive government program like this or, program on a F18 size scale is going to have problems like that.

Sure.

I think, what I can say about that is, is that the Defense Department itself has said, to contractors that that foreign object debris is they call it like an oily rag.

Left in the wrong place could damage an engine or could damage another part of the plane.

That's a lot of the times the government calls that property loss.

And that's a big problem in the San Antonio facility as well.

So it's sort of, those it's a small issue that that can create a bigger one down the road.

If not.

Caught.

And when that first person contacted you, what what sense did you get from them of what they wanted?

How big a problem they thought it was, whether they, you know, what did you get the sense when you first heard this story?

I wasn't sure.

I thought that this person might have, exaggerated or just sort of seen it through their lens.

I didn't I didn't really think the because I thought, you know, this is the government.

The government doesn't tolerate should or shouldn't tolerate this kind of thing.

But when you get these documents back and you see that they have been chastised over and over and over again for for failing to follow basic procedure or even in some cases, employees who don't have the certifications to work on.

The departments that are working in you start to to sort of question, you know, how is any of this safe?

And now the, the ultimate conclusion of the reporting that you did, you had to go through lawyers to make sure that you covered your bases.

And what you wrote was absolute fact.

Well, we didn't want to get sued.

Right.

But you also didn't want to.

You said you don't want to come down on telling people what to think about what you reported it.

Right?

We didn't want to characterize this in any way that wasn't already characterized in the story.

So we wanted to make sure that the people who are reading this know that we're not saying this, the government is saying this and that, that that carries a certain amount of weight on it, that, that, that we can't give it.

And if we tried to, I think we would do the story a disservice.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Fascinating story.

You can check it out on the San Antonio Business Journal.

James McCandless, thanks very much.

Thank you.

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

You can see this show again.

You can watch any previous shows.

You can also download the podcast.

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