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 talk about what could happen to the military bases in San Antonio, Joint Base San Antonio, and all the tens of thousands of people who work for the Department of Defense here in San Antonio.

Joining us to tell us everything there is to know about that is Jeff Webster, who is the president and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thanks for having me, Randy.

Good to see you.

All of this started, I guess, with, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at a congressional hearing in June, talking with Congressman Henry Cuellar, Democrat of San Antonio, asking about what will happen to the future of the bases in San Antonio and the tremendous secretary he really couldn't commit.

They're going to be restructuring.

They're going to be combining commands.

What's going to happen here so far that we know of so technically that we know of zero, right.

But what's happening is most of what happens in the private sector, if you took one of our major corporations of Valero or USAA or whoever, the Defense Department is skinny and down on their executive leadership, their general officers, the generals.

Now, the goal was to take it down by 20%.

So when you remove those executive leaders, that means you then have to kind of combine some efforts.

So the command and control is over a defined group.

So I think they're trying to be efficient.

The good news efficient with our tax dollars.

The unintended consequence is some communities across Texas, San Antonio and across America are going to be impacted by potential command changes or relocation.

One of the obvious ones they believe is going to be US Army North and US Army South.

A lot of people in San Antonio don't know.

Those two separate commands are both headquartered at Fort Sam Houston, about a mile apart.

They're to be combined with the Is at the Forces Command at Fort Bragg, or to become a forces command.

But we don't know where all that's going to be based.

Well, the prediction or assumption is they will be moved into Western Hemisphere command or command.

And so the question has become, do you move just the commanding officers?

Do you move the commanding officers, the support staff, or you can move the commanding officers or support staff and maybe the couple battalions that are attached to it.

So you've got a spectrum that could go from 50 people to a couple hundred people to several thousand.

And I think what we're beginning to hear now is, the ability to absorb all that is going to be difficult.

I feel at Fort Bragg, at Fort Bragg.

If this is just an efficient operation here at GSA, that the support the troops to house the troops, the cost of living, support the families, the quality of life in first of all, the military looks at quality of life as one of the top retention and attraction and recruiting elements.

So JBS A and San Antonio, we all know here in San Antonio, Military City, USA, that's a strong draw for keeping troops and commands here in San Antonio.

So we're still waiting to find out whether that's the the little bit of the move, a medium move or the big move.

I think it's moving more towards the leaner move rather than large.

And as the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, you are pushing to keep as much as you can here.

What are you hearing from, people in Congress?

And has Senator Cornyn and Senator Cruz really, latched on to this because it was three Democrats who signed a letter to the defense secretary saying, we want these to stay here.

And they didn't.

The others.

Yeah.

Well, so there's a couple of things happening.

So we've got two different tracks taking place here in San Antonio.

We created the Military Transition Task Force in 2005 that has Tricare is considered, consisting of a city representative, a county representative, and the greater chamber.

So on that, as the chair currently is myself, Commissioner Grant Moody, it was Councilman John Curry.

Of course, we just had an election.

I spoken with Mayor Jones, and she's going to be making a selection real quick of who will be that representative on from the city.

Now, in those meetings that happen quarterly and now are happening, happening almost weekly, we have all kinds of associated groups from the military, the state, a cog, greater city.

There's all of us are in this room talking about what's currently happening.

And so what we're trying to do is develop a strategy, how we advocate from San Antonio that started with letters that went to our entire congressional delegation, and to our U.S. senators, the greater chamber.

We have been in contact with both senators, our congressional delegation, and others.

Henry Cuellar was somebody I've been visiting with personally.

Tony Gonzalez, Chip Roy and pick the group.

We've been blessed by a congressional delegation, a very protective of San Antonio, and understands the value.

But it doesn't end there.

We've also got to communicate with the governor and lieutenant governor to advocate what's good for the state of Texas, because while this is about San Antonio, it's really about Texas in the bigger picture and economic development and growth.

So we're working on all those angles.

I know you were a councilman.

I'm not sure exactly the dates, but back end.

This is kind of deja vu for me.

Covering Brac and Fort Sam Houston and the concern about that.

But then Kelly went away.

Suddenly we're in Washington and the vote comes down and Kelly goes away.

And there was a huge push to keep it here, to keep everything here.

And then, you know, Brooks goes away, basically.

Are you worried that that's going to happen to one of our commanders here, at least?

I mean, north and south.

You would think they have to go combined.

At least we're going to lose a couple of generals and their staff at least.

What's best case scenario, I think best case scenario is it's stay status quo.

And the commanders or maybe they they join the commander here.

And there's one single command, here in San Antonio.

Two is I don't think people understand really what those armies and those assignments are.

The fifth and the second, you see everything from what happened in LA to what's happening on the border to the flood relief in the Carolinas.

That's all being managed and controlled out of Fort Sam and the quadrant right over there.

So this command does an awful lot in, in the North American in the United States.

So what you bring up a great point and thanks for the memory I got on City council and what, 30, 60 days later, we lost Kelly Air Force Base.

Terrible situation, but there's a lot of elements behind that between labor costs, lawsuits and inefficiencies that were happening at Kelly that created some problems.

And we did some things were done, I think locally that shouldn't have done that made it a bad choice.

The good news is Port San Antonio, Jim Percival and those guys, they've got a larger economic impact and base of employees than Kelly ever had.

It's amazing what's happened over there.

If you go to Brooks, guys down there, Brooks have turned that into one of the fastest growing economic generators in Texas.

Really?

Now you say, well, what about Fort Sam?

Well, always remember the anchor at Fort Sam, while we love our fifth on Second Army is the Medical Command, the Joint medical Command.

If you join the military, no matter what branch, you're coming to, San Antonio, Texas.

There is so much invested there.

I cannot believe we'd be at risk ever losing that.

So I think that scope and command will grow.

What about Camp Bullis?

People have said for years.

Well, they're not going to closed Camp Bullis because there's a lot of stuff underground that they would have to clean up.

But it's a huge tract of land that would be worth God knows what is.

Is Camp Bullis going to make sure that we at least keep that part of the land, or is it just too attractive as a piece of land?

Well, you know, the commercial real estate value could be amazing.

I live out that way.

And even when I was building my home back in the day, they have evacuate one day because they found an unexplained an unexploded ordnance that an oak tree had grown around from World War two, I think.

And so, yes, there's a tremendous amount of who knows what's on the ground out there.

But when you go talk to the medical command, the Air Force and the training features that happened out there, it's irreplaceable.

What's happening out there on that land.

I don't think we're in any danger of losing that.

We've worked hard on encroachment.

We've worked hard on lighting.

We've worked hard on the Golden Creek wobbler impact on that base.

So I don't think we're in any danger there.

I think the danger is just.

It's just the size of our military.

God love them as taxpayers.

We want them to be efficient and effective with what they do.

But we do realize this is Military City, USA.

There's some cost of living advantages here versus having things on the East coast or the West Coast.

Even that we can do here that make quality of life for our men and women in uniform.

Is this going to be easier and we don't have time to talk about it.

But keeping the Spurs, you know, there are two different, arguments and discussions, but they're both about economic development, economic impact and continue to make San Antonio a place people want to live and have a quality, quality lifestyle.

So you don't have much work to do.

But, we yeah, we appreciate it and come back and update us on the Spurs as well.

And Department of Defense Jeff Webster, president and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce.

Thanks for coming in.

Thank you, my friend.

Appreciate it.

Just within the last couple of weeks, San Antonio has a brand new city council, new mayor, many new council members, but some familiar faces as well on that new council.

One of them is district nine council member Misty Spears.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Now, we talked with Edward McGuire last week.

We're introducing people, to the new council members.

How do you describe yourself as first of all, a person before we get into the politics, your background, your history, that kind of thing?

You grew up here in San Antonio.

You said since you were ten.

Yes.

Yes.

It's I'm feel like a hometown girl.

I've always lived in district nine.

That's that's where I grew up.

That's where I raised my family.

Now.

And I just love it.

I have a real love for district nine.

So it's.

I'm honored to be, elected by the voters.

Tell us about you growing up, what you did, you got an accounting degree, then a little bit about where you came from and how.

Well, I went to, Encino Park Elementary and then I went and there middle school.

I went to Church Hill High School.

And then I've always wanted to go to Texas Tech.

I was born in Lubbock, and I have family there, so I always wanted to return there.

And and I was lucky enough to go got my accounting degree.

I met my husband when I was in high school, and, and he went to tech as well.

And then we got married and we were back here in San Antonio and in district nine.

And then we started our family.

He got his law degree, and I was working in accounting and Clear Channel and Pioneer Drilling.

And then, I went to work to learn about the law and, well, I work in the legal business to help him in his legal career.

And then, we started our family and I got involved in some of the politics, and I was I ran for district clerk in 22 and got to know Commissioner Moody went to work for him, and I realized I could get in there and advocate for district nine and be a part of the community in a different way.

I know people ask you about the Spears name, the Spears family in San Antonio, well known judges.

Your husband's on the fourth Court of Appeals.

He is he is my husband.

Just got elected in November to the Fourth Court of Appeals.

So, he does come from a long line of judges.

His namesake was a federal, judge.

And the Western District.

And then his uncle, great uncle was the Texas Supreme Court justice judge.

And then, his cousin was a district court judge.

And and you didn't want to go that route when you got into working with him, you wanted to.

You're described as a long time activist.

I know.

I don't know where that comes from necessarily.

I have I never been an activist.

I've just been involved and paying attention.

I didn't have this on my radar.

This wasn't something I really pictured for myself.

We always kind of pictured my husband maybe moving in his trajectory, but this, manifested, and I'm.

I'm glad that it has.

I feel I feel ready.

Was it when working for Grant Moody that you decided?

Well, I guess it was before that when you ran, what triggered it?

You think running to represent people, to make a change yourself?

I think it was just talking to the people in our community, really understanding the issues, because I was I had access in the way that I was already working with Commissioner Moody and Constituent Services.

So I was talking to everyone in district nine, actually across all of precinct three.

So I was able to connect the dots in a way.

And being from the district gives me very, I think, truly unique perspective because I understand where we came from when it was a two lane road and we didn't have an H-e-b out there, and no one would come out to see us because we were so far out in district nine.

And to see what it is now, I have all that perspective and understanding of of the culture of district nine and, and why it's special.

And so what are your priorities now pushing for district nine as the budget is being prepared?

So I've been saying all along, we have to get back to basics.

That's what everyone expects.

That's what they need.

That's the function of city governance government.

So I'm focusing on public safety, which is one of the things I was running on and I'm still focused.

There is number one, I think you have to be safe in your community for first and foremost.

And I care a great deal about our infrastructure.

Being able to get around and economic growth and spending our tax dollars wisely on these basic core functions.

Because I think if we do these things well and get out of everyone's way, they're going to prosper here.

And we have great opportunity here in San Antonio, and it's time we do that.

We also have some threats here.

We just talked to Jeff Webster of the greater San Antonio Chamber about possible military cuts.

Who knows what's going to happen with the commands here?

And other cuts as well.

How do you deal with those not knowing what's going to happen?

I mean, there's a lot of unknowns right now.

True veterans are very near and dear to my heart.

Anyone who's sacrificing putting their life on the line for any of us deserves our utmost dignity and respect in our society.

And so we need to be bird dog in that we're military city, USA.

I care about as possibly losing missions.

And what do we do?

Do we pivot and try to get new missions to come here?

These are all things we've got to look at closely.

And I'm I'm ready to work on that too.

How about Councilman John Courage who was Northside District nine?

Some people were surprised that he was not as conservative.

If you are more conservative than than he is, at least that's the way you've been portrayed.

How different are you going to be and what weighs from John Courage?

Well, I think that the the voters gave me a mandate on what they wanted to see in the way that the election turned out.

It was an overwhelming victory.

And I, I maintain that it's about getting back to basics and district nine.

Everyone worked hard to get to where they are in district nine and where they live there, and they love it and it's special.

And, they want to see that preserved.

And there's a lot of things about district nine that, that you can't see anywhere else in this city.

And they just want to preserve their way of life.

They want a good quality of life, they want to feel safe, and they want to be able to get around.

How do you feel?

How do you feel about funding?

A few years ago, we heard about equity funding that the places say Southside.

Some on the West side, East Side haven't been invested in to the, extent that the North side has, how do you feel about that concept that we need to spend more on the parts that need it more?

I disagree with that.

I feel that equity based funding, we have needs in district nine, too.

I think that you run it like you would your home in a lot of ways.

Do you just replace things, let it get into disrepair and then replace it?

That's more costly.

No.

You maintain the assets and the things that you have and you try to add value where you can.

And I think every district has their own needs and deserves their fair share.

And actually district nine has the fewest parks out of any district.

Really?

How about the surprises so far that you've had?

What's been the toughest thing yet?

Oh, I don't know.

That you came in knowing a lot since you work for Grant Moody and you knew a lot of the council people and.

Well, we were fortunate to staff very quickly.

I think being thrown into working on the budget, I wish I'd had a lot more time in doing that with the budget.

But, I mean, we knew that going in is just the practicality and the function of doing that.

So, maybe that's the biggest challenge, but we're ready to do it.

I, I mean, we knew it going in, but it's just actually executing at this point.

So.

Right.

Well, good luck with all of that.

New council member district nine Misty Spears, thanks for coming in.

Thank you so much.

We've had a lot of news recently about Project Marble, the new plan sports and entertainment district downtown and a Spurs arena included in that here to talk about that is the reporter who has interviewed Peter John Holt of the Spurs, Madison Esler, who's enterprise reporter for the San Antonio Express-News.

Thank you very much for coming in this interview you did with him.

I thought it was fascinating about why the Spurs need a new arena.

What's the main premise there?

Yes.

So Peter Holt said that an NBA survey is the Frost Bank center ranks pretty high in terms of concessions, people's experience inside the facility, people are happy, he said that it's outside the facility where they run into issues.

People come in, see a game and they drive home.

There aren't a lot of restaurants, bars, other types of businesses for them to go to before and after the game.

And the facility is just kind of by itself.

It's surrounded by parking lots.

And so he has said that part of the impetus for the Spurs wanting to move to a new arena downtown is that it would be in the middle of a lot that's going on and a lot that's to come.

So fans would have amenities.

And that was the argument for putting that on the East side, that it was going to bring a lot of development.

It hasn't happened.

And it's going to be quite a sales job for the Spurs, for the city.

In an upcoming, we expect vote in November.

What did he say about that or the Spurs going to put on a push or did he did he talk about that?

This is part of it when he's talking with you.

Right.

The city is hosting a bunch of workshops right now.

And Peter Holt mentioned those workshops.

People can go and kind of weigh in on the different components of Project Marvel.

They can say what they would want to see at HemisFair downtown, which is where the arena and other pieces of the larger district would go.

But the city doesn't have any plans to change those different components at the moment.

We asked Peter, are there plans for the Spurs to roll out a campaign, or are people going to see billboards with Wembley saying he wants a new arena?

And he said no.

At the moment they're not planning to roll something out in the immediate future.

Did he talk about costs and how much they would put in?

He said that though they're willing to put up hundreds of millions, but he hasn't put a specific number on that.

And as for the cost of it, we're talking a billion and a half.

We think, for the arena itself.

Yes.

The city has said that they think it'll cost 1.2 to 1.5 billion, and a lot of that would come from different city sources.

Some would come from the county.

And then there's the Spurs investment.

But we really don't have hard numbers on those different pieces right now.

But at this point, it wouldn't be from general revenue, either from the city or the county.

We believe it would be from hotel motel taxes at this point, a car rental taxes.

Yes, yes, the bulk of the money from the city and also the county would come through, different mechanisms that involve taxes on hotel rooms and also rental cars.

And the county piece is really the only one that would actually go to a public vote.

The city sources, aside from infrastructure that would have to be built around the arena, doesn't have to go out to a public vote.

But the county piece does.

And Peter, John Holt and his family, they own a good percentage of the Spurs.

But there are other investors.

Did he talk about that?

Because there recently there were investors recently in the past couple of years from Austin.

And the concern has always been other cities Austin, Vegas, whoever getting the Spurs.

What did he say about that?

Yes, we were curious about that.

And if the different investors that the Spurs have brought in more recently from Austin have put any pressure on the team to move there or elsewhere, and also just what they think about a new arena in downtown San Antonio.

And Peter said that they bought into the Spurs because of the Spurs and in his view, because of San Antonio.

The Spurs are a San Antonio team.

And he said that's part of what attracted them to invest.

But now there's such growth between San Antonio and Austin.

There isn't a light rail, but there's been talk before about, I'd say, an NFL team.

If you get one, it would be an Austin San Antonio team.

Is there any talk of that putting an arena?

I mean, would that be the alternative if San Antonio doesn't come up with the money that they would somehow put it in, you know, beauty, Kyle, San Marcus, that area.

Peter said that they looked at all different parts of the city and also between you know, San Antonio, San Marcus area at a new arena as the Prospect Center is kind of nearing the end of its roughly 30 year life cycle.

But he said they really want to be downtown.

They want to be part of the sports and entertainment district.

That's why they said, we want to go downtown, in his words.

So I'm not sure what would happen if you know, voters don't ultimately approve the county financing piece.

We asked him about that, and he said they're very confident that voters will see the value.

And also the county judge, Peter Sacchi, has been very vocal about wanting to make sure, that if they do put up any money, the hotel, motel, county tax, that they would take care of development around the Frost Bake Center.

So he would be part of this push.

Did did, Peter Hole talk about that and the county's involvement specifically?

I think that's still very fuzzy at this point.

There's been some talk of the Willow Springs golf course and that potentially being redeveloped, but a lot of it is in a floodplain.

So it's a bit unclear what exactly could be done.

And that's of course, still owned by the city.

It's not owned by the county at this point.

The rodeo has made a pitch to try to put year round programing on the grounds, and so that would create more of the activity that I think Judge Sacchi wants to see.

But as far as what role the Spurs would have in that, it's it's pretty unclear at this point.

The arena, the Spurs arena downtown would be only a part of what's called Project Marble.

And the vote would be, as I understand it, just on the Spurs arena piece this fall.

Yes, that's right.

But what else is part of Project Marble that could contribute to the Spurs success downtown?

It's a massive project, 3 to $4 billion, roughly.

So the other components are a bigger convention center, expanding that to try to draw more events and host big events at the same time.

Turning the John Wood Courthouse at HemisFair into kind of a small event venue for concerts or other smaller events, having private developers build apartments and restaurants and the like in between these facilities, renovating the Alamo Dome.

And then another one is building, a second convention center hotel.

And when Peter Holt was talking about other developments around the Spurs arena, was he talking in addition to that of Project Marble to the south, maybe in southeast?

Yes.

He said that immediately around the arena, which would be built at the Institute of Texan Culture site, the Spurs want to have a role in what could be immediately around the arena.

And that's a common model in other cities.

The arenas aren't being built by themselves, are being built surrounded by mixed use development, whether that's a hotel or restaurants, apartments, the like.

And so he has said he wants the Spurs to be very involved.

What form that could take ownership, leases and the like is still fuzzy, but that would be separate from the other components of Project Marble.

Crystal ball.

Do you did you sense a confidence that this will happen and do you think this will happen?

He said he's certainly confident that voters will see the value and green lighting a new arena for the Spurs.

I think it remains to be seen.

I'll be watching.

Well, you're a reporter.

You're supposed to say that you.

Madison is an enterprise reporter for the San Antonio Express-News.

Thanks very much, and thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can watch the show again.

You can watch any previous shows and download it as a 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