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.

Thank you for joining us for on the record, I'm Randy Beemer, and this week we are talking about data centers, the proliferation of them, especially in Texas.

And they are at the heart of a number of campaigns across the state.

Here to talk about that is Kay Weinberg, who is a member of the Data Center Action Coalition based in San Marcos.

Thank you very much for coming in.

First of all, how did this data center Action Coalition start?

What what are your main concerns?

When did you start?

Yeah, so early last year in 2025, we learned that there were a number of huge projects being proposed out in the country near town, and some neighbors were already learning about it and getting concerned who were right next to the sites.

And I live in town, and we started to work with them and just try to learn information.

That's been the first step, is just trying to get our heads around what's happening.

And then we started to share that information.

And sharing that information.

San Marcos became, you say, the first city to to ban data centers.

I believe it's the only town in Texas that's banned data centers outright, though.

The thing is, most of them are out in the county, so it doesn't do a lot.

And when you say ban or what you want to happen in Texas, there's not a lot that can happen legally, right?

Well.

That's what the developers want people to think.

The fact is that, you know, there are three data center projects out in the county near us, and one has been canceled, and two have been majorly, majorly stalled.

And Hays County.

Yeah.

That's right.

Hays.

Guadalupe.

Yeah.

And in that area especially.

Well, is there one area where these are being, you know, planned in a bigger way?

West Texas?

There are definitely some clusters, but it looks like the I-35 corridor is actually a major site of development for various reasons.

There's like fiber cables under the ground.

There's a number of reasons why we've been focused on that area because we live in this area, but also because we're noticing that there's just a huge number of projects coming in.

And what are the specific things that you're against?

The use of water, the threat to the environment.

The communities that were supporting outside of San Marcos.

We really are just trying to support people producing the kind of future that they want in their community.

Right.

So the the issue is that people don't want these.

And there's a lot of reasons why.

I mean, they're major health hazards for many, many reasons.

In many cases, they're really huge water guzzlers.

And people are very concerned about drought.

There's also the issue that these are used to develop AI technology and run AI technology.

And people are very concerned about the purposes that that's often being said to, like surveillance.

I mean, there's a big issue with flock cameras across the state, and people are really trying to deal with that.

And I think there's a major link between AI technology and mass surveillance.

And so, yeah, whether it's the local health issues, the fact that just thousands of acres of ranch land are suddenly being destroyed and leveled.

You know, there's like rural traditions are at stake.

People's well-being is at stake for various reasons.

And also, there's these broader questions about what this technology is, you know, doing.

And noise.

Because the cooling of these, as I understand.

It, there's no issues.

There's pollution issues.

I mean, there's 100 new gas fired power plants that are going to they're trying to their trying to build in Texas for all these.

They use a ridiculous amount of power.

It's really hard to conceive.

But like one of these things uses the amount of power of like Austin.

And if they have their own gas powered power plants and the separate data center, as I understand, they can get by technical regulations that would call them a major polluter instead of a minor polluter.

Yeah, that's I mean, there's a lawsuit in San Antonio with vantage maybe you're aware of.

And yeah, this has been an issue in Caldwell County recently.

They found something, you know, Abbott made all this noise around TCU pausing permits and other sorts of pauses.

But it seems to be that these gas plants for data centers, even if they're on site with data centers, are somehow a loophole for this.

And so they're continuing to be permitted.

So it's more I don't wanna say public relations, but it might be misunderstood as a ban on data centers when it's not.

Well, yeah, I mean, it was it was pushed that way in the media.

Like this is smoke and mirrors campaign rhetoric.

What do you want to happen in the next session of the legislature coming up next spring?

We're really focused on local politicians who we can really hold accountable.

I think that the state government is unlikely to bite the hand that feeds it, and some of the most powerful people in the world trying to put a lot of investment in this sort of AI infrastructure into Texas.

And I don't think they're going to let the state government off the leash very far.

So, you know, we're focused on what we can control.

What kind of reactions have you had there locally in San Marcos, aside from the band, just from officials and the general public?

I think that people, once they realize that they have a say, become really activated.

And it's you know, I think a lot of us are on our phones just like scrolling and seeing all the terrible things happening in the world.

And it's very invigorating to get to to work with other people and actually make a difference in your community.

And I think that's the message that we're really trying to spread is that this is not inevitable.

And out in the county and in the city, we have had a lot of success stopping these data centers.

And it's it's difficult, but it's not it's not impossible.

All right.

Well, thank you very much.

Fascinating information, especially right now when all the talk is about data centers and the growth.

Kay Weinberger, the data center Action Coalition.

Thanks for coming in.

This week, the city of San Antonio filed a lawsuit against Ice and DHS over that planned detention center on the east side.

This week, the city council as another resolution about that.

They're working on the bond issue as well for next year.

Here to talk about that and more is Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones of San Antonio.

Thank you very much for coming in.

First of all, tell us about the lawsuit over the planned detention center.

What do you want to happen in this lawsuit?

To stop it entirely, to delay it?

Look, at the end of the day, we are in this position because the federal government failed to keep their obligations to the people of San Antonio.

I have signed out at least four letters expressing my desire to make sure that we get the information that our community deserves.

And frankly, you're talking about they haven't updated you at all.

So it's important we have asked for basic things.

A federal requirement is a Nepa review.

Write an environmental review.

This facility is the largest warehouse in our community.

As you know, it was not set up as a to hold 1500 people for processing.

And so there was an environmental review that needed to be done.

And these are traditionally done before a property is purchased.

They haven't done that.

We have asked, how do you intend to to complete the Dnieper Review?

How do you intend to use the city's permitting processes?

How do you intend to solicit and consider in good faith the people's feedback?

Haven't done any of that right.

And so that's we've been very patient.

The last deadline was the 30th of September.

That came and went with no response.

And so we are now we find ourselves in court because I think what's important is, you know, when we look at what's happening in our community, it's not just that Eastside facility, as you know, there's also been now this lease that has been signed on the south side at Brooks.

This is a $51 million lease for 15 years, 75,000ft².

And it's with two entities.

One of them is the Department of Homeland Security.

It is for their office of primary legal advisor.

So those folks that would litigate ISIS cases write immigration cases.

The other party in that is DOJ, Department of Justice and their Executive Office of Immigration Review.

So that entity that would no kidding hear the cases.

So you can imagine how our community all of a sudden becomes this hub for not only processing, but also then the litigation, which is not what we want to be known for.

Right.

Brooks, also, the officials there put out a response saying they didn't know this was happening.

And they don't.

They basically they don't like it.

That plan that it would change.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, I think everybody knows if you just can't be like, literally think about this for two seconds, who's going to want to set up in some of these communities right next to either a processing facility or right next to some of these other immigration enforcement activities?

That doesn't.

It actually, I would argue, has a chilling effect on on the type of economic development that we have worked so hard to have, not only on the East side, but certainly on the South side.

So I think it's important that we consider those things.

I mean, that East Side facility, the distance between the East Side facility and those Brooks properties, that's 15 minute drive.

That's a ten, that's ten minute, ten miles rather less than.

So that is not what we want our community to be known for.

At the end of the day, though, the federal government needs to hold up, hold their obligations to the city and provide us the information that we need.

Do you expect what's the timeline on the lawsuit?

It's in federal court.

They haven't responded yet.

When they respond.

Do you want it?

Is it for a temporary injunction or how would that work?

So the request is that all activities as it relates to the renovation of that facility, until they do the neighbor review?

Right.

As Andy Segovia, the city attorney, as indicated, if we see other movements though to to no kidding renovate that then we would request an emergency hearing.

So at the end of the day, we need federal government to follow.

The law.

And some people have questioned how much it's going to cost to file this lawsuit, to litigate this whole thing, how much is going to cost to the city.

So at the end of the day, I would argue, what is the price tag for respect, right?

There are laws.

We're supposed to follow them.

They have not been followed in this instance.

Moreover, I mean, let's be clear about the economic impact that we will lose.

Our community will lose out as a result of these facilities being set up in our community.

Again, no one wants to live near two things.

They don't want to live near a data center, and they don't want to live near an Ice facility.

Right?

So let's be serious about the economic depressing impact these facilities and activities would have in our community, which I would argue with surpass any litigation fees.

People are also concerned that the raids would increase, as I understand it, because you have a detention center with more than a thousand people able to be held there, well, it's not going to sit empty and they're going to have to go out into the community, increase the numbers.

And that could change in San Antonio if we see Ice raids.

And I understand that a lot of people are concerned about that.

We continue to be concerned.

I mean, look, 100,000 folks just in our community are undocumented.

We are one of the communities that is experiencing one of the higher rates of, of of pickups by, by ice.

So this is important, again, that we push on all levers to make sure that this facility is not established and that frankly, let's be very clear, we also October 19th, you know, get our butts to the ballot box, make sure we vote for the types of leaders that are going to hold, certainly the federal government accountable, but make sure that we, our community is represented in a way that which we deserve.

And one of the I think they've already filed the lawsuit.

Cities already filed a lawsuit.

But there's also a resolution now saying in addition to the lawsuit, city officials or city departments should do whatever they can.

How does that work?

It's essentially that, right?

I mean, city staff, you know, if there are other opportunities to ensure that we're working with partners in the community to also push back on these kinds of efforts as it relates to aggressive immigration enforcement, do those things.

So it's it's more messaging.

You mentioned data centers.

You're also talking about that.

What can happen there?

What would you like to see?

Well, at the end of the day, I want to make sure that anybody that comes into our community is frankly, we understand all that's happening there.

Certainly when it comes to, frankly, impact on on utilities, we know this is kind of top of mind.

We also want to make sure that there is sufficient transparency right around all things related to these major, major efforts.

I think, you know, folks in our community are not only looking at some of the current data centers in our community and, frankly, some some better practices.

I think that they would have liked to see certainly even just basic thing like a public notice.

Right.

I think for some folks that that I've heard from the concern that these things kind of just popped up and there wasn't sufficient kind of public engagement about what these things would mean, because again, these things look, my background is in national security.

We, of course, need this kind of computing power, both for economic security and for national security.

But that doesn't mean somebody wants to live right next to them, and that doesn't mean that somebody shouldn't deserve to understand the impacts not only on them, their health, but also their property values.

And that's why I think it's really important that we have the discussion.

And I'm going to talk about things that I think our community deserves.

Public notice, restrictions on noise.

How do we make sure that we are accounting for the green space that has been eliminated?

Once these things are constructed, and talking with mayors across the country that are a little bit further along in their data center journey, you want to put that insurance policy in place.

Now, you don't want to look back and say, oh, wow, we never would have thought they would have done that.

Well, I mean, you got to protect yourself.

Are you looking like San Marcos?

I understand as the first city to ban basically new data centers.

And so we we went down this path.

We went down this path a couple of months ago.

A moratorium and a moratorium only gets you six months.

Right.

And so it's important, I think, that we have a strong process in place to review these things, allow us the flexibility as a council to to weigh in appropriately.

I think that's the best way to balance this.

What do you expect the timeline to be on action about data centers on the council?

Well, it remains to be seen kind of the feedback based on the conversation.

So we'll see kind of what people's appetite.

Is again, I think it's important that we as part of the application process by from from data centers, that we ask for the type of information that the public deserves.

We give them some sufficient information to review that provide us their feedback and then the council way inappropriately.

Bond issues.

Where are you on that?

There's a seemingly a lot of disagreements on how big the bond issue for next spring will be, and where the money should come from, and go.

Look, I think at the end of the day, we need a bond that we can afford and one that will pass 442 million is what we're capped at.

If you if we don't want to raise people's property taxes again.

Right.

And that's not where I'm at right now.

That capacity we could actually actually find $175 million more if we increased people's storm fee.

And that would go to all toward drainage.

As you well know, we have lots of drainage needs in our community.

But 442, I mean, we just saw interest rates rise, right?

Things have not gotten cheaper.

And so that that money just doesn't go as far as it as it needs to, which is why I put forward a framework, one I don't I think anything it's just to be frank, I think anything that goes to the ballot box that ask people to raise their property taxes again, I think it'll fail.

And I think we don't want to be in that position because of that.

Bond fails.

Nobody gets anything.

Priorities seem to be.

My priority has been, frankly, what it's been since I got into office, which is how do we make sure that we are investing in parts of our community that traditionally have not been invested in?

So the framework that I put forward would do a couple of things.

I think things that can be funded, for example, out of that project finance zone, that's that three mile circle right around downtown that that the state is letting us keep those hotel taxes and we can use them on three things the arena, Alamodome and convention Center and associated infrastructure.

So if you remember, in that last bond update, the staff is recommending 35 million from the bond.

200 some.

Well, yeah, I mean, there's a ton of stuff that's been cut out.

I mean, yeah, I mean, if you go look at that June briefing, I think that that the city manager presented, there was a ton more projects in there.

So we got to 35 million because they frankly eliminated a lot of projects.

Additionally, 35 million, though was still what they are recommending from the bond I have.

I have said I want to see that 35 million any infrastructure related to the arena, I think needs to come out of the fck.

That money is there for that.

So we use our bond money, our property tax dollars on projects that benefit the most community.

I also think, look, watch any city council meeting, any city council meeting.

It really kind of sounds the same, which is districts one through five saying, hey, you know, we haven't been invested in we really could do our folks need.

And so I think you can use the bond to help make some equitable investments.

So we all come up together.

And so I know there's going to be your hashing out there.

So you don't have to put it forward until February.

So we can.

Have to call for it until February.

That's right.

All right.

Well, thank you very much for the update.

Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, appreciate you coming in.

Thanks, Randy.

The flu season is definitely here in San Antonio.

In fact, the numbers are going up here to talk about that as well as other shots you should get this fall is Doctor Jason Bolling, who is professor and interim chief of the division of Infectious Diseases at UT Health San Antonio, as well as director of hospital epidemiology at University Health.

Thank you very much for coming in.

First of all, you say the numbers are up for flu in San Antonio, Bexar County.

We are seeing early flu activity a little earlier than we normally see in a typical restaurateur virus season.

Our numbers.

We had 91 confirmed cases this past week, which is up from 51 confirmed cases the week before.

And that's confirmed cases.

But, you know, there are a lot more out there.

Absolutely.

Right.

So those.

Are cases.

Where people have gone to get testing but shows that in the community the cases are much higher.

Is there any reason for that or do we just see that sometimes.

We do see it sometimes.

So each flu season each respiratory virus season is unpredictable.

How much flu, how much Covid, how much of the different respiratory viruses we see and when we start to see them increase.

There's increased activity nationally on the West Coast as well.

And so we're starting to see it a little bit higher.

But it's not outside of the variation that we can see from flu season to flu season.

We saw James Talarico.

He was off the campaign trail for a while.

Is it more severe cases this year or people sick for longer or worse, or do we know.

So far we don't know.

We don't have any reason to believe that it would be more severe cases.

We're hopeful that we won't have a flu season that is severe, as last season, which was a record number of cases for the 2025 years.

And now, as we talk about shots as the CDC, federal officials have kind of changed their messaging and other officials have stepped up.

What are you telling people about flu shots and Covid this year?

Extremely important that everybody recognizes.

It's still important to get the vaccines.

There have been some changes in the vaccine recommendation process.

The CDC does not have new recommendations for the 2627 flu season.

They're saying continue the same recommendations from the year prior.

But several professional medical organizations have stepped forward to provide recommendations for the new vaccine products that are available, both for flu and the Covid 19 vaccine, so that everybody has some better understanding what they need to do.

And there's more flu vaccines available this year.

There's more flu vaccine available.

There are different products.

There's now an mRNA product that's available for people that are 65 and older.

It's important that people that are 65 and older, in addition to six months in order to get the flu vaccine, but over 65 to get an enhanced flu vaccine product because they need a better stimulation of their immune system for better protection.

And you can also get Covid shots.

Those are out now and important still, because there is Covid out there.

Covid is still out there and we saw our probably our peak of activity in September, but we're still seeing high numbers.

There were 81 cases of Covid 19 this past week as well.

So we're still seeing a fair amount of Covid 19 out there.

It's not too late to get protected with the Covid 19 vaccine.

That vaccine was just out.

You can get a Covid and a flu vaccine at the same time.

Some people are worried about it.

I don't want one and the other at the same time.

Is that an issue?

Not an issue at all?

Absolutely safe and definitely more convenient to get both the flu and the Covid 19 vaccine at the same time.

And win.

Win is a great question.

So everybody should get the Covid 19 vaccine and flu vaccine as soon as possible, but definitely by the end of October.

There's some saying get the flu vaccine before the Bu can referring to Halloween, but the idea being to make sure that you get it in time so that your immune system has the two weeks it needs to gear up those antibodies to protect you.

The vaccine.

The Bu vaccine.

And again, it's not going to what kind of reactions do people have and how they actually should be concerned about it or not.

The reaction could be a lot less severe than the actual flu or Covid.

That's absolutely right.

And most people will have some reaction locally to the flu vaccine and the Covid 19 vaccine.

So they'll have some redness, some soreness where the the vaccine was administered, maybe a little bit of swelling.

And that's just flexing their immune system.

Responding to that vaccine.

Serious reactions are extremely rare.

They're reportable.

And every year they look at those vaccine reactions to kind of see if there's any trend or concerns.

And where do you get them, where can you get them so you.

Can get flu vaccine?

Covid vaccine at community based pharmacies are the the easiest place to get them.

But large health systems also have them available as well.

And insurance covers it.

Insurance is covering it.

Yes.

All right.

Well thank you very much doctor Jason bowling with UT Health San Antonio and University Health.

Appreciate you coming in.

Thank you.

With the election coming up November 3rd, a lot of people still have questions about what's on the ballot and specifics of voting here to talk about that is Andrea Drugs, who is senior government and politics reporter of the San Antonio Report.

Thank you very much for coming in.

This is such a crucial election in a lot of ways.

But people still have questions about because of the news about the suspense list in Texas and the DPS registrations that weren't sent to the counties.

What do you tell them about first, what's on the ballot?

This is a big election in Texas.

This is you know, once again, we're in one of these elections where people are saying that Texas has the best chance of turning blue, that it's had in a very long time.

You have a governor's race that is sort of coming online at the very end here between Greg Abbott and Gina Hinojosa.

You have this Texas Senate race in which the Democrat is outpolling the Republican.

You also have this this new congressional map that is scrambled voters all across the state, but nowhere more than San Antonio.

We have 43% of Bexar County is in a new congressional district this year from the last time they voted.

So you might not even know who you're voting for.

But you you can get that sample ballot just for your district.

So that's important.

Yes.

So when you're headed into the polls, you want to have the sample ballot, your sample ballot.

That'll show what races you're in before you go in there.

Because when you go to vote, all you can take is a piece of paper with paper notes, you can't bring your phone or tablet to research these candidates ahead of time.

Unlike other states that mail you your rallied or where you can register same day, you have to be registered 30 days in advance.

In Texas, that was October 5th to participate in this November 3rd election, for which early voting starts Monday, October 19th.

Go online to the Bexar County Elections Department website, check your voter registration, and then when you do that, you'll be able to download a copy of your sample ballot, where you can print it out and read about all of these candidates on the San Antonio Reports voter guide that we put together has every candidate on the ballot all the way down to the judicial races.

And some people might have a question because they've seen the headlines about the suspense list and thousands of voters who are on what's called the suspense list of voter registrations.

What does that mean?

What do you tell people about that?

So we've been in close contact with the elections department throughout this election, because there has been a lot of fear about the headlines.

Regarding the suspense list, she says.

Elections Administrator Michelle Carew says that this is a totally normal part of the process, and that it's flagging people who, data indicates might have moved since the last election and not updated their address.

And if you didn't move, it's fine.

You can show up to vote and you will fill out a piece of paper saying that you live where you say you live and you'll vote, and your Rowlett will count.

In this election, it's not a provisional ballot, its traditional ballot.

If you did move, say, from out of county, you will be able to vote in the races that you still have on the ballot that are in both counties, your statewide races, your governor's race.

You wouldn't be able to vote in your local races because you would not have registered at your correct address in time.

What if I moved recently?

Is that the same thing?

You can go ahead and vote, but just say where you're voting.

Yeah, you'll fill out an attestation of your current residence.

And what else do you tell people about?

There are questions about they've been headlines about teams, the governor or the state's new election system, fairly new election system.

This has been some of the weirdest things that we've covered.

Related to this election is that the state has this statewide voter registration system that it provides for all of the counties, but the big ones tend to use a private system.

And it went out of business last year right before the primary.

And so it was a big deal.

They all needed to migrate on to the state system.

That also happened to be going through a big, major technology upgrade of its own, and it caused this huge backlog of voter registration applications that landed on elections administrators deaths right before the election.

And they got through them all.

They brought on staff to work through it, but since then, they've learned some other things about it, like the fact that here in Burke County, they said when they were entering, they would receive mail ballots, ensure that they had received them, and then that information would disappear.

And it caused people to think that their mail ballot had not been counted when it had.

And so our elections administrator here said it.

She's trying to work backwards because of its destroyed trust in the voting system here.

And that shouldn't play in your mind at all when you go to vote.

No.

Generally speaking, elections officials are pretty confident that this stuff is stuff that happens and they work through it, that they can bring on more stuff if they need that.

This stuff doesn't keep them from running a fair and accurate election.

And there have been conspiracy theories out there, as there always are, about.

If you don't sign here, you're both it's not going to count.

That's not a concern either.

Or that if an election official makes a mark on your ballot, your your vote won't count.

That's just out there.

But then, you know, we also have these headlines popping up about how people who registered to vote while renewing their driver's license, whether they were getting their driver's license for the first time or renewing it, people who did so at the Department of Public Safety, they also were caught in a backlog of voter registrations that also just wound up in our elections.

Administrator here said, gosh, we've had people coming in telling us all year that they registered to vote that way, and it wasn't showing up in our system.

Now we're learning that they might have, and they're trying to get to the bottom of how many of those were actually people who had lawfully registered.

And I understand you said there's a grant that was supposed to help people move through the lines faster with new technology.

Yeah.

Our League of Women Voters here has done a little research on this and said that Bear County actually spends considerably less on elections than other major counties in Texas, and they just got a big grant from the federal government that has been used to fund some technology upgrades.

A lot of new equipment was about $4 million.

Things to help move people through the line more quickly.

They're supposed to have now technology where you can they're supposed to have in this election the ability to go online and check lines in real time so you can see where there's a short line that you could go vote at, because in Bexar County, you can use any of the vote centers, both early election early voting and election day voting and also tabulation equipment.

We've had some sort of delays in the results, and they've got some new tabulation equipment.

And with all the expected increase in voting numbers, as we had in the mail elections in March.

What about concerns about problems at the voting locations?

You know, am I going to be able to vote?

How early do I have to be there?

Should I vote early?

You should be able to find a location online with a short time.

And our trick is usually if you go online and look at where the vote totals have come in throughout early voting, you can sort them by the least the least vote number of votes that were counted.

So you may find one that isn't the most popular one near you.

But only 25 people voted yesterday, or only 1000 people voted versus one of the big libraries where thousands of people were voting.

There's a few that tend to get the biggest turnout every election, but there's tons of others that people can use.

And as always, you can vote from 7 to 7.

And if you're in line at 7:00, wherever on Election Day, you get to vote.

We'll check those hours, because during early voting, the hours vary by day, right?

But yes, if you're in line at the at 7 p.m.

when the polls closed, you still get to vote.

And so that that also caused a little delay in the results last time I believe the polls, they wound up, they were open for about 45 minutes after at the end of early voting and at the end of election day voting during the 2025 election.

So get there early if you can.

Thank you very much.

You can find out more on all of the election information.

Andrea Rush has senior government and politics reporter.

Thanks very much for coming in.

Thank you.

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

You can watch this show again.

You can watch any previous shows.

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.