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

San Antonio is a fast growing, fast moving community with something new happening every day.

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

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

Join us now as we go on the.

Hi, everybody.

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

I'm Randy Beamer.

And we're going to start this week with a man who could tell us about a couple of big issues that the county is now addressing.

And for many people, there's nothing bigger than the Spurs and whether they might ever be looking to leave.

That's always an a question in the back of everybody's mind.

And County Judge Nelson Wolf is here because this week, County voted on a plan that would allow the Spurs to have is at eight home games.

It allows them to increase two more home games.

They can have two now and play somewhere else.

We increase it by two so they could play two games in Austin, which is probably what they want to do.

They can play one international game and then one game in the dome.

It's only for one year.

They asked for two years, but we restricted they.

They had talked about it.

There was talk about more than that, like playing in Monterrey, Mexico.

But why don't you finally approved.

Out just one year and it's for two additional games and now we'll see how it goes.

The theory being that they want to expand their fan base to be able to attract more people coming to San Antonio, watching the games as well as sponsors for some of the games.

And I believe that's their intention.

But there's a lot of people that believe there's other intentions.

Yes, especially because you have Michael Dell, one of the owners now the Spurs, and you have, you know, Austin with a lot of big money people.

What do you tell people who are concerned this is the first step?

Well, I think they should be concerned because I don't know for sure.

I can only tell him one thing, that as long as Peter, John, Hoult and his sister Karina are owners a controlling interest, I don't think they're going to go anywhere.

I have absolute confidence in them.

They're great citizens of San Antonio.

But beyond that, I don't have a lot of confidence.

All these out of town owners.

You know, the Leicester goal is very attractive and there's more gold in Austin.

There is in San Antonio, but there never be as much loyalty in Austin or anywhere else than there has been here by Spurs fans.

So it'd be a tragedy to leave San.

Antonio and Bobby Perry's came before the commissioners this week and said, No, we want to stay.

R.C.

Buford says.

We want to stay at Holtz, but are they coming before commissioners?

Well, Bobby was the only one there this week.

I guess we did make the final vote.

There be two more weeks passed before we make a final vote on it, and I ask that they show up.

The CEO of the Spurs, at least, and before he made the statement that they would stay here.

So we'll see and we'll be working on the language.

I want to be very, very careful on the language.

We have a good contract with the Spurs.

If they were to leave this year, they would have to pay us $130 million and we would get their arena free, which they put money into also.

And even if they left during the last year of the term, which is ten years from now, it's $84 million.

So there's a good contract with the county, but that doesn't mean they couldn't pay it and leave maybe $130 million is a lot of money to you and I, but maybe to them is chump change.

But they also are planning this the rocket lock on Terra Human Performance Campus, if they would move to San Antonio, would just go nuts and we wouldn't support them the way Austin they want to support them in Monterrey.

That is right.

So do you think with your crystal ball they will be staying here?

I've only got one.

Just going to write it on your browser.

The only way I would ever have any confidence in them staying here as long as the Holts are in charge.

Beyond that, I have no confidence.

And we want that.

I don't know if we want to end it with that.

But OK, so in a couple of weeks, though, you're still going to have another vote.

Yes.

So it's not a done deal yet.

That was a 32 vote.

I mean, that shows you there's really concern in the communities about the intentionality of the Spurs.

And but I believe they're going to stay here.

I believe I believe in the Colts.

I believe in the fact that they're going to try to expand their faith, their fan base.

All right.

We'll move on to another decision that was kind of overshadowed by the Spurs vote this week.

And that's the next parts of the public health district that you created recently.

This is the county's push to give more health care, to provide more health care.

What happened.

This week?

Well, we've done two things in the last month.

One, our hospital district, our county hospital district stood up a public health division.

Dr. Villareal is heading it out.

So they're going to be concentrating on all the things dealing with public health, surrounded by medicine, they say are what we did at commissioners court yesterday.

Was approve the standing up of a preventive health and environmental services department that would concentrate on doing things that would help people prevent their health problems.

Education and Outreach Program.

We committed $10 million to additional staff and $10 million to outreach.

People died during COVID.

I think we had over 5300 of our citizens died from COVID.

Those many of those had underlying health conditions hypertension, diabetes, obesity.

And so we want to get out there and try to help people with their diets, what they're eating what they can do to take better care of themselves, talk to restaurants about better information about the food they're serving.

Calorie intake, salt, salt, content.

Try to get people to do a healthier life so they won't develop those underlying.

Now, some of the stuff that you're talking about has been done in the past by San Antonio's Metro Health District through a contract with the county.

And the city is also expanding them.

And there's concern that it would be redundant.

Some of the things we are.

Doing, I don't think you could ever do enough on prevention, ever.

But there will there be a waste?

No, I don't think so.

That's a concern.

I'm going to be meeting with city manager in just a few minutes.

And we're going to be talking about making sure that all the entities are working together, that we're doing the same things.

For instance, Metro Health, the vaccines were so did we.

We did.

We did 500,000 vaccines.

But you.

Work together and you in the mayor are on.

And we're and we're going to continue to do that.

Got to remember, 600,000 people live outside the city of San Antonio, and we're doing those in their county.

Yes.

And we're doing those things already.

The growth in Badger Counties is 17%.

The growth in the city is around three or four.

So what we're going to see as we keep growing is outside the city limits that the growth occurring.

And that's why we think we need a much broader reach in terms of public health.

Is there anything else that's in the pipeline that you're going to be adding?

I think I think it's going to take a while to stand up these things and get them going.

And like I said, they're what we want to do with with the city is partner on some of these outreach programs where not just our money, but they're money also.

And we've done some of that in the past, but it's been hit and go I've been part of that.

You get our in charge there about the sugar content of drinks and you run these spots and you get everybody and it goes away.

Same thing with restaurants.

It was a restaurant plan.

We're going to work with the restaurants to get them to do this goes away.

So we need sustainability.

And that's why we said $10 million, 2 million each year for the next five years.

Well, thank you very much, County Judge Nelson Wolf, for the next almost year and then off into the ether.

But you have a book out and we're going to talk about it another time.

Well, I don't know, wherever you go.

Thank you very much for coming in, County Judge Nelson.

Well, thank you You may know redistricting is going on at the state level.

We've heard more about that for state representatives and for congressional districts.

But right here in San Antonio right now, you have your chance to give input on where the new city council line should be drawn.

Joining us to talk about that is Andy Segovia, city attorney and Bonnie Prosser, Elder, who was a co-chair of the San Antonio Redistricting Advisory Committee.

Thank you very much for coming in.

This is different this time than it was ten years ago.

Because there is a committee.

Why is there a committee this time and how does it make it different?

There's a committee this time because the city council and the mayor are very keen on making sure we have community engagement and transparency in whatever we do.

So they looked at the process last time, which simply involved our advisers working with city council members, individually and city staff and coming up with with proposal maps.

They would prefer to have a advisory committee that would do it in a more transparent, open manner.

Hence we have a committee.

And you have to do it because basically the districts on the north side have grown so much that they're out of proportion.

That's correct.

Under the new census data we have.

Council District eight is is overpopulated and we have a couple of council districts particularly five, that are underpopulated.

We need to make sure that every the most overpopulated district is within 10% of the least populated district and has We do have to make changes.

So the biggest changes at this point are districts one and five growing in terms of their land mass.

People are going to be put into that Where are the biggest differences at this point, as you see from the committee?

Differences.

We're, of course, working on some shifts between District nine and District one, and there are also some discussion points between District five in the District five area.

But these are also representatives from those different districts and are getting input from the neighborhood, say, the greater Harmony Hills neighborhood.

That has been an issue, I guess from District nine, moving into District one.

But you have to make some tough decisions because also you're dealing with you can't dilute voting rights of certain groups, right.

That is absolutely correct.

There's always a concern about diluting minority voting rights and and particularly in district one and District nine, there was going to be some shift because district one needed to grow.

District nine needed to shrink.

And so there was going to be movement.

But all of that movement while doing that, we're considering the voting rights of the minority district.

How tough is it to do it these days?

There is software where if you move a certain group into one area on a map, you can see right away in terms of the population, you can see can you see right away in terms of the minority?

Yes.

There is magical software that does a very good job of showing us instantly the population and the minority numerical values.

And the advisory committee has used that software in its public sessions as they look at different proposed maps and they can see the impact on the voting rights and on the population to make sure we meet both of those requirements.

And as you draw up the maps, unlike before, when it was kind of behind closed doors, people can watch exactly what you're doing.

Absolutely.

And where are you now in the process?

On April 4th, we approved a draft map.

And so we have that draft map that we're working with now.

So any changes or modifications are going to be based off of that April 4th map.

And one of the concerns, I guess, or the issues that was brought up was whether Brackenridge Park should be represented by one council member or two.

And basically because of that, groups and neighborhoods around it.

Where are you on that right now?

That was discussed at the last meeting on Monday and the representatives from both of those districts are getting back together.

And it will come back to to be discussed again at the open meeting of the redistrict advisory committee in our next meeting.

And people can go online right now and see the proposed maps, but they can also give input and actually submit their own maps.

Is that right?

They can submit comments to the map.

They can submit their own proposals.

They can review the prior meetings to see what was discussed and and where we were.

But at this, we are trying to move towards closure.

But we this has been encouraged from the beginning that people could give their input.

And you want to get it done by a certain time, sometime in June, because why?

We want to do it in time so that people know before the next election what district they're residing in, particularly anyone who's interested in running for a district seat.

Hence, our timing is to have the council consider the final proposed plan from the committee in June.

All right.

Well, we appreciate you coming in.

Again, everything is online.

If you go to the San Antonio dot gov, I believe it is we'll have it on the screen right there.

You can see it where to go to find out more information and you can get more input through the end of the month at least.

Bonnie Prosser, Elder and Andy Segovia, thank you very much.

Thank you for having us.

Appreciate it.

You might have seen reports in the last week with people right here calling for stricter regulations by the Biden administration and by the EPA.

On the Jake Spruce coal fired power plants down on the southeast side.

One of the people calling for that is an associate professor at UT Health Science Center, Dr. Aletha Cantu.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Are you and Councilwoman Anna Sandoval and others?

We're at a news conference where you talked about how much in terms of emissions are going into the air right now and what that means.

Why now are you calling for this tighter regulation?

Well, I think one of the things as to why now, it's because of what we know the health consequences are of air pollution, ground level ozone and other things that are emitted from a lot of sources.

One of them being the spruce power plant It's really it's critical right now to understand certainly the health consequences, but also to understand what part that plays in our changing climate.

So definitely climate change issues.

And what we're seeing because of that are and coal plants could contribute to that.

And then we also know there's health consequences of the emissions that are coming from these plants.

Now, CPS energy and you're on an advisory committee, a couple of them for them that they want to shut down, they talk about as soon as possible or feasible for them.

The spruce, there's two plants.

One could be retired faster than the other.

Because of basically because of debt and the needs of the city.

What do you say to those who say it's still going to be years 20, 30 before the final?

Yes.

Correct.

CPS energy is working very hard to get to where they can close it down.

So I applaud CPS energy for the work that they're doing and having this dialog not only among themselves, but with us.

We would like to see it closed by 20, 28 if possible.

But they are working to 20, 30 as a close date and we applaud them for that.

Does want to help them do that.

Does this have any relation to the EPA talking about marginal non attainment that we've been on for years in San Antonio non attainment, the ozone requirements to moderate non attainment which would mean more things like emissions checks for all of us with cars.

So what we are expecting will happen from the EPA in San into San Antonio and Bear County being moderate non attainment level of ground level ozone.

So the ground level ozone is the issue.

Certainly the coal plants are contributors to that.

But there's other things that contribute to the ground level ozone which we know is harmful.

That's why we have our ozone action days.

People stay inside that are more vulnerable, filling up our gas tank in the evening waiting to cut our grass.

So the that that has to do with the ground level ozone that has been measured here by the EPA and when we were at the minimal level, there were certain things we had to do to bring bring the our level of ground level ozone into compliance.

And those were not met.

So the next level is a moderate non attainment.

And are you OK with that?

Would you push for that?

Because that has been anathema.

The city leaders saying we don't want that because that would be tougher for all of us.

We'd have to pay something like $20 more.

Total.

In terms of emissions checks and such.

Right.

There are certainly some consequences to being not not at the I'm sorry, moderate non attainment level.

However, there are also consequences to our health and well-being and that's where I'm focused in is those issues.

We know that that could increase the amount of asthma attacks that a children and adults have, the respiratory difficulties, the cardiac issues that are can result from a ground level ozone being at a higher level.

Now, when you held a news conference with Anna Sandoval, who has a public health degree, I should point out, what are you calling for specifically from the EPA and the administration.

Stronger, stronger standards relative to air pollution.

Right.

Relative to the emissions that we know are emitted from coal plants and other things, such as mercury, such as carbon dioxide, such as arsenic.

So stronger standards in terms of reducing the amount that's admitted and in the air.

Now, at the same time, when you're advising CPS energy, what can they do to meet that?

I mean, is that going to be a hardship for CPS to do that within the rate structure they have right now?

And and that's a discussion right now.

I'm I'm on the rate advisory committee.

So those are dialogs that are happening right now.

Weather.

What will the financial burden be to customers, to the city as a whole?

And then also in that discussion will be the other impacts from it, you know, cost and benefits risk and benefits.

All of those will be in the discussion.

And those discussions need to be had.

Certainly, we want to be mindful.

Everyone wants to be mindful of how much you pay.

I pay you pay everybody else.

And we all need to be mindful of that.

And what's important for CPS energy to invest in right now to reduce some of.

It as as a public health official, do we see more health consequences in that area down by Calaveras Lake where we have the coal fired.

Plants?

Certainly.

What we do know on a national level, two out of five Hispanics live within 30 miles of a plant.

68% of African-Americans live within 30 miles.

We see that with spruce as well.

It is located in the south part of San Antonio, one of the historically marginalized communities, communities of color.

And you're going to see individuals there have a much more undue burden when it comes to the health impacts.

We're about out of time, but when you expect that there would be some action by the EPA or the administration, when would we hear of that work?

We're calling for it to happen as soon as possible.

I know I've had some discussions with the city maybe within the couple of months that letter being received, but I can't say for sure but certainly the sooner the better.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Dr. Leader Cantu, appreciate you coming in and keep us updated on where we are.

I will.

Thank you so much for having me.

On.

Reporters Roundtable this week.

Joining us is a digital content producer, which is just another fancy name for a reporter from the San Antonio Express-News.

I like to think that anyway.

And it's Nick Shepherd who had a fascinating article, Talking Trash.

And you had the answers to a lot of questions a lot of us have, which is how much waste and recycling as well as San Antonio is generating each year.

And it's changed so much over the past 20 years.

What did you find?

One of the big findings.

So San Antonio is throwing away more trash than ever before.

And it's really fascinating because since the pandemic hit, the trash numbers have gone up quite a bit.

They've raised 14% since 2019.

And you know, the the number of waste generated by each customer for San Antonio has also increased about 23% going from 1.49 and 2001 1.49 tons in 2000.

More cost.

Per customer up to 1.84.

So nearly two tons of trash.

Sounds like bad news but in a way it just reflects how we've been living.

Yeah.

So it sounds bad, but it's not really bad because the amount of waste per customer going to landfills has gone down drastically.

It's currently at about 1.1 tons per customer when it reached a high of 1.4 or five in 2008.

So nearly a ton and a half of waste in 2008.

And that's been reduced to 1.1 ton.

And the recycling has gone up.

Yeah, the recycling has gone up quite a bit.

It started out there was a 9% diversion rate and diversion is just basically how much waste is sent to the recycling center.

So in 2008 it was 9% and 20, 21 it was 40%.

And the city has a goal of 60% diversion rate for recycling, but that would take everything going perfectly.

I don't think the city expects to really get to that number, but if everything worked perfectly they would get up to 60%.

And you talked about a change just last year when they went to a private firm to do the organics.

How did that work.

So before 20, 21, whenever anybody would throw away organic material like leaves yard trimmings, food and they took it to the center, the city center for organic waste, they would have to reject whole truckloads if it even had just a little bit of trash.

So in 20, 21 they hired Atlas Organics to take care of all their organic waste and Atlas Organics has the ability to sort through trash and they have the ability to compost 125,000 tons per year of organic waste.

And so this has helped increase the numbers of recycling and organic materials that is being turned into compost, which is then sold or given to community centers for beautification.

And along with the digital content or the print article that you produce, the other great video that you would ask to be produced on that organic recycling and how it works.

But it also showed how much people throw away that should not be close to a green bean.

What are some of the things that they found?

So they found X boxes.

They found just different kind of trash that shouldn't go in those boxes.

The only one I can think of.

I remember seeing.

That it's like but it looks like some big electronic stuff that shouldn't go there, but they can at least go through that and still make use of the rest of everything in there.

Yeah.

So Alice Organics has a couple of things that they do.

They first go through all the waste sent to them with a person.

They do it manually, and then they also run it through a machine that picks up the waste that the person may have missed.

And so once they go through that process, they then take it, put it in piles and in about 30 to 45 days later, it's.

Because they put some like they have pipes under it that puts in oxygen to increase the composting.

Yeah, it increases the good bacteria, the good microbial oils that turn the organic waste into compost that helps everything grow.

And now also for the blue bins, the things that we like, paper and such, they have to weed out a lot of stuff that we put in those bands that we shouldn't.

Yes, I didn't really get into that too much on the article, so I'm not going to talk a whole lot about that.

But yes, that, you know, they they've managed to do a better job through awareness and promotion and they've also said since 2007, people's attitudes and thinking about recycling has changed.

They also have different sized bins now to encourage people to have less trash and then basically recycle on their own or just use less.

Yeah, that was part of the green cart program that was rolled out in 2013.

Well it was started in 2013 and then it was really rolled out citywide from 20, 15 to 2017 and the smaller bins is a way to help incentivize recycling.

Thank you very much, Nick Shepherd, who is digital content producer for the Express-News.

Thanks for coming in and thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can see this show again or previous shows as well as a podcast at our own talk Thanks for watching.

We'll see you next time.

On the Record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Duflo.