a fast growing fast moving

community with something new

happening almost every day.

That's why each week I go right

to the door with one of the

newsmakers who is driving this

train should.

Joining us.

Join us for the conversation a

lively discussion with the

reporters and community leaders

about the issues that matter.

Joining us now as we go to the

record and now Jim Forsyth

allowing them to record an

unrehearsed discussion of the

significant events and

challenges facing us here in San

Antonio and south Texas.

We are fortunate to be joined

today by San Antonio Mayor Ron

Nierenberg.

Mayor welcome to ON THE RECORD.

Good to be with you.

Mayor the city is facing what I

have heard from business groups

from political groups from

neighborhood associations as

being a genuine existential

threat to the city we live in

and that is what happened last

week at City Hall and that was

the certification of the three

petition signature initiatives

gathered by the firefighters

union.

That will be on the ballot in

November.

What is it about these

initiatives that bothers you so

much.

Well it's not just me it's

because the whole community

citizens from around the city

have recognized the threat of

these which would end our whole

democratic system of governance

and that has devastating effects

on the way people are

represented would create

political gridlock on simple

things like creating a city

budget it paves your streets and

takes care of your parks.

But more than that we've gotten

objective economic impact

analysis and warnings from our

rating agencies that the mere

passage of these charter

proposals put forward by a fire

union would impact taxpayers to

the point where we're spending

hundreds of millions of dollars

on interest payments because our

ratings go down because of the

uncertainty it creates.

These are devastating for the

future of the city.

It creates divisiveness and

political gridlock at a time

when we need collective action

on bold ideas to move our city

forward.

Now you told the Hispanic

Chamber last week that you are

quote 100 percent certain that

these will be defeated by the

citizens in November.

Now I'm hearing a lot of

populist rhetoric out there

about how City Hall doesn't

listen.

It's time for payback.

They need to start listening to

us.

How do the arguments you just

made overcome.

What in politics recently have

turned out to be very very

powerful populist arguments.

Because this is a city of

teamwork.

It's a city where people work

together to find common ground

amidst our great diversity which

is a strength of our city.

This is a city that's 300 years

old and throughout our our

heritage we have learned to work

together.

And I know and I have seen when

people become informed about

these petitions which were only

signed by about 20000 people

they they know that these will

have devastating impacts and

they believe the truth.

They believe the facts and

they're not persuaded by

petition peddlers who are trying

to upend the system of

governance that we've had for

for decades to suit their own

private self-interest.

Now you mentioned petition

peddlers and that's an

interesting phrase considering

that City Hall in the last month

have had to deal with two

separate petitions this group of

three petitions plus the

petition asking the city to

approve mandatory sick leave for

private employees.

Even though that seems like it

is certain to be thrown out

either in the courts or by the

legislature.

These are two issues that were

foisted on it largely by out of

town petition forums.

What impact might that have on

the city moving forward.

And what's your feeling about

maybe ways to end this petition

madness.

So I would disagree with one of

those things the petitions that

came forward through basically a

proposal were actually generated

from citizens here in the city

and there was about 140000 of

them that signed the petition.

The petition drive that we know

that the charter proposals were

performed by the fire union were

done by hired guns from out of

town in Butte.

In fact it's likely what I'm

hearing illegally hired from

Butere to do this.

And those were about 20000 for

each of those proposals.

So the way we go about

governance in the city of San

Antonio in our American

democracy is that we elect

leaders to find to find

compromise between all the

different opinions that are in

our community and that's what

San Antonio has done so well

during our history.

And so the threat of these

charter proposals driven by the

fire and union that wants to

leverage themselves against

taxpayers is that it's trying to

change the rules of the road to

make it easier for them to get

their ways and to hold leverage

over the taxpayers by lowering

lowering the threshold for

petitions and making these

situations more commonplace the

kind of California style

referendum process that drives

governance there and that

creates gridlock is what they

want to bring to San Antonio and

that's wrong.

One of the things that has been

your recent priority.

Everybody knows that housing is

an issue in San Antonio whether

you see your property tax bill

are your property appraisal.

Whether you live in an area

where you being gentrified out

of the community even in the

larger number of homeless we see

on the streets.

Talk a little bit about your

long term housing initiative and

how that might affect people

across all strata of this of the

community.

Someone's home whether they

rented or they own it is the

basic building block of a strong

economy.

And right now in San Antonio we

are facing what has become a

crisis in other cities.

We're starting to see trends in

that direction where the average

San Antonio can no longer afford

the average home here in the

last decade.

Homeownership rates have dropped

dramatically while eviction

rates within the last seven

years are up double.

So housing affordability is

becoming an issue.

And it is largely a result of a

supply demand imbalance.

Some of that has to do with red

tape and the difficulty it is to

develop affordable homes.

And I'm not talking about

subsidized homes I'm talking

about homes that people can

afford.

And so I developed I appointed a

task force with different

experts and involved hundreds of

experts and city citizens from

around the city and they have

put together a report that

addresses these issues in a

comprehensive way and helps us

to create a sustainable housing

market an affordable housing

market so that more families can

enjoy living under a roof and

being able to afford it and

being able to therefore afford

their home and participate in

the local economy by buy food

for their family buy medicine

for their children so they're

not so cost burden here in the

city of San Antonio.

Our participation as a

government is very minimal

concerning the fact that we have

a 2.8 billion dollar budget in

this million and a half people

to serve a million and a half

people.

The budget for housing is seven

million dollars additional in

the general fund.

So it's a very minimal amount

but the housing report indicates

that those funds can help can

help spur the market to be more

affordable to be more

sustainable and to be healthier.

Whether you're a homeowner or

renter a housing developer it

all is much more healthy for us

and help and helps us to

maintain a healthier economy.

Now the 7 million will come from

the city budget and it will

presumably be added to by

federal money by funding by the

rappers.

The total budget is 35 million

out of again a 2.8 billion

dollar budget.

In comparison we spend 700

million dollars on public safety

services so that you can get a

sense of the priority and scale.

But yes most of the funds come

through grants and federal

funding.

It's a very small portion comes

directly from the city of San

Antonio.

Something else probably right up

there with housing is

transportation and you and the

judge Wolf have indicated plans

to put before the voters in 2019

could act as say a wide ranging

transportation proposal.

Where do we stand with that now

and what can you tell us about

what that proposal will and will

not include.

Yeah it's a comprehensive

transportation plan for the city

of San Antonio and it's moving

forward quite well as you know

we have a tri chair organization

that includes hope Andrada Henry

Cisneros and Jane Macon they're

putting together the board and

also generating the community

input that we need to move

forward on a comprehensive

transportation plan.

The truth of the matter is we

need to have options here in San

Antonio.

We don't currently your commute

time has increased dramatically

I'm sure your weight and

congestion has.

So we need more options just

besides the roads that we have.

So the plan itself is helping us

to indicate where we need more

capacity on our roads.

But also where we need new

options like mass transit and so

over the next eight to 12 months

their work will be underway and

we will have a ballot initiative

likely in 2019 for citizens to

vote on a better transportation

future for the city.

You've talked about trackless

trains.

What is that.

And how would that work.

Well trackless trains are you

know basically mass transit

vehicles are simply a vehicle

that can move many people on its

own dedicated right of way

whether that's a track or an A

train or it's a bus or something

else.

That is the key to having mass

transit you need to be able to

move a high number of people on

its own dedicated right away.

Tracklist options are becoming

the most attractive option for

cities like ours because they're

cheaper they're more flexible

they can be scaled up for

ridership demand and they

function just like a train

except in a city like ours which

is developing rapidly.

When you put a line dedicated

right away for a trackless

vehicle it may not necessarily

have to be there in 100 years.

It can move because the tracks

aren't laid into the cement.

It's a much more flexible

option.

It is adaptable to the

technology it is here today and

and it's much more cost

efficient it allows us to allows

us to develop and implement a

mass transit system and a mass

transportation system much more

effectively for a city our size

which doesn't have current

currently any options.

Now something else is happening

next year as you know is that

San Antonio Missions a baseball

team has indicated that they

want to move up to Tripoli.

And they want a new stadium.

We haven't heard much about that

for a while.

Where do things stand as far as

a new baseball stadium.

Well I'm anxious to hear their

plans.

I know they're developing some

options.

And you know as I've stated

before the center the city of

San Antonio.

Our community loves the

missions.

It's one of the it is the oldest

professional sports franchise in

the city.

It's a very storied minor league

baseball team.

That being said the development

of a new stadium depends on

their action.

I do not support taxpayer

dollars being used for downtown

minor league stadium which has

been the conversation for a

couple of years now.

I believe they are as keen on

their future in play as we've

heard and they're focused on it

and everyone that I've talked to

and the media outside indicate

that San Antonio continues to be

one of the most attractive

places for the expansion of

professional sports.

So I expect the missions to make

their transition make it well

but the development of the

stadium proposal.

You know we're waiting and

seeing what they have to to put

forward.

You're now in the second year of

what we assume will be your

first term.

That's a story for another day.

What is it you're most proud of

so far.

What do you look back on the

last 14 months as mayor of San

Antonio the seventh largest city

in the country and say I'm glad

my name's on that because that's

pretty special.

You know I'm proud of the fact

that for the first time in our

city's history we've taken a

deep look at the community that

we are and we have decided that

we're going to allocate

resources in a way that allows

for us to keep our promises that

it shouldn't matter where you

are in the city what part of

town you live in what zip code

you have in use and have great

services and great

infrastructure from your city

used to have an opportunity to

thrive and to succeed in the

city of San Antonio.

We are using equity as a guide

to allocate our resources here

so that the child that's born on

the east side or the west side

or the north side or the south

side will have an equal

opportunity to succeed in the

city.

That is something that takes

teamwork political fortitude and

I'm glad that we have citizens

who support leaders that do

that.

And that's what we have here in

the city of San Antonio Mayor

Ron.

Thank you for joining us on the

record.

And stick around with us.

Next up is the conversation.

And welcome back to the

conversation.

Let me introduce our all star

panel for today starting out

with Brian Chazov metro

columnist for The San Antonio

Express News and Northwest Side

San Antonio City Councilman

Manny Elias.

Thank you both for joining us

and welcome to the conversation.

Thank you.

Councilman if we can start with

you.

You have raised a very very

important issue just recently

about some clear cutting of

forest lands by developers in

your district and just outside

your district at Bear County.

Right.

What are the issues that are

brought up by this and why is

this important in your opinion.

So let's be clear.

It's about 40 acres of beautiful

pristine land thousands of trees

a really important asset as far

as views and tree canopy goes.

And it's not developers it's a

developer who is not a San

Antonio developer who decided

that just a good idea.

You know drop a bomb and shave

off every tree on this hill.

But he did so with what appears

to be now you know using

documents that contain false

information.

He raised his right hand in

front of a notary and certified

that a lot of the information in

the documents he submitted in

order to get the permits to do

what he did he swore that they

were true and we've been looking

at and it looks like they

weren't.

And so I've got some very

serious concerns about of course

the trees and of course what it

means to endangered species and

all that but also what it means

to the military but also just

from a process point of view and

from a fairness and rule of law

point of view you know we ask

people to raise their right hand

and take an oath before signing

very important documents for a

reason because it's important.

And you know if you or I or you

were to file a false document

we'd be facing possibly third

degree felony charges which

include jail and fines.

And I'm asking for a very

thorough investigation by the

law enforcement agencies.

As you know it's long been

claimed the developer has

essentially run the city and to

have their way with many

neighborhoods because

development is obviously

something that members of city

council the leaders of the city

want to have happen in their

communities and across the city.

What tools does the city have to

deal with situations like this

and can this be settled without

a long protracted court fight.

I'll tell you that the

overwhelming majority of all the

developers in San Antonio live

in San Antonio.

And they've got a stake in San

Antonio doing well and I have

yet to come across one that has

done anything as egregious as

what has happened here.

Maybe it's a product of this

fella not living in San Antonio

or not caring.

But what we've got in place in

San Antonio is a very robust

system run by our Office of

Development Services where we do

code enforcement.

We do restrictions on the number

of trees you can cut down.

We do you know mitigate we

require mitigation for drainage

and we require them to really

think about the impact that they

have on traffic and on foot

traffic and transportation and

so the air quality we've got in

place a lot of restrictions.

I will tell you our friends in

the development community think

that there's too many of them.

There's friends on the other

side of the table who think

there's not enough but we do

work with them on a daily basis

to enforce these rules and make

sure that they're doing

development in a responsible way

with this gentleman did violates

the spirit of everything that

we're trying to accomplish at

the city which is trying to

create vibrant communities.

And that still respects our

natural assets.

Now what did this fellow do or

did he just show up with the

bulldozer at 2:00 a.m. and start

knocking down trees or did he

have as you put it falsely

worded official documentation

that allowed him to do this.

Well we started getting phone

calls at around the same time

just last up started getting Mr.

Chesnoff colleague Mr. Tedesco.

We're getting phone calls and

which is my gosh they're out

here chopping trees and then the

next morning we woke up and all

the trees were gone.

It was really really alarming.

What I've been saying and I'll

say it again to be absolutely

clear is that all signs are

pointing to there being a

violation of civil or criminal

law here.

And all I'm asking for is an

investigation either on the part

of our D.A. or the A.G. or U.S.

Fish and Wildlife.

And if there is a determination

that these laws were broken will

there be consequences.

I would expect someone you know

that law enforcement side to

think that that's a reasonable

request and sure we'll open an

investigation.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife has

indicated that they will in fact

investigate and he wants to put

an up apartment complex.

Yeah it would be 500 plus

apartment units and you know

people have objections about you

know apartments and all that.

But I think it's important to

have a conversation with all of

San Antonio about it's not just

about apartments and it's not

just about chopping down trees

and it's not just about

protecting wildlife right.

Like the golden warbler.

This is a really important point

that I think is being missed.

This is a jobs and economic

development.

Bad mark on our record.

You know the military talks to

us often in the city council we

need you guys to make sure that

encroachment around our military

bases is slowed down and it's

not just encroachment on

buildings and people.

They're very worried that every

single time we chop down a tree

and remove habitat for the

golden Sheik orbit for example

that warbler is going to choose

to fly on to Camp Bullis and

higher concentration of

endangered species on Camp

Bullis threatens the viability

of those missions and we depend

on those jobs.

And so we do everything we can

to defend the military's ability

to continue those missions and

the least we can do is hold

developers feet to the fire when

they break very simple rules

which is how about you tell the

truth on documents Bryan if I

could turn to you.

You have done outstanding

journalism on some dysfunction

in the Bear County Democratic

and Republican parties that have

both been really eye opening

pieces.

Could you start out with the

Republican Party which seems to

have its own unique share of

challenges as we head into the

November election.

Sure yeah it's internal war.

Basically you have a faction a

large faction in the Republican

Party who are very upset with

the new chair.

Cynthia brand and the reason for

this is that her husband who

she's been married to for 22

years some time ago couple of

decades ago he was prosecuted by

the army for some heinous crimes

that include acquitted indecency

with a child and we've since

learned molestation of children

in this case his own relatives

from a very young age.

And this all has kind of

dribbled out over time.

One reason why this faction in

the Republican Party of precinct

chairs are very upset with the

chair is that the chair Cynthia

Barron has not been was not

forthcoming about the extent of

the situation.

She tried to downplay it at

first she she only gave as much

information as she needed to

based on this plea deal that her

husband was given by the army

extremely lenient Predeal

considering that he had fully

confessed.

We've since learned to these

heinous crimes.

And so you have major

dysfunction in the Republican

Party because of this dynamic

and obviously the chief job of

the party chair is to raise

money.

I assume that this is not

helping the Republican Party

raise money moving into

November.

Oh no.

And if you can't even agree on

her position there's that

there's a majority of Precinct

Chairs who think that she should

resign.

They can't force her to resign.

She has to step down on her own.

But yeah it makes organization

virtually impossible.

Now the Democratic Party is on a

roll of Bear County obviously.

Ten years ago we had a

Republican district attorney we

had a Republican sheriff.

Now all three top countywide

offices are held by Democrats.

So should we think Manuel Medina

for that.

What is the situation in the

Democratic Party obviously

that's been happening a lot of

Republicans have been having

good luck in the race in

statewide races.

What is happening in the

Democratic Party and how does

that affect their ability to

continue that streak.

Well I mentioned manman Medina

because he was the previous

chair of the Democratic Party.

He was defeated soundly by

Monica Alcantara in this last

primary.

She is new.

And what we've learned since

she's taken office is that there

are there is a large faction of

Democrats who don't want her

there who are extremely loyal to

them well and they're causing a

lot of trouble for Monica.

They are showing up to meetings

and introducing resolutions that

weren't on the agenda for

example at this past meeting

day.

They introduced a resolution to

support the fire unions charter

amendments and something that

Monica disagrees with as chair.

But they're much like the

Republican Party.

There is a majority of precinct

chairs who are able to overrule

the new chair of the Democratic

Party but they can't remove the

chairs.

How does that work.

That's a good question.

From what my understanding is

you cannot you can't just vote

to remove the chair if she has

to step down.

Wow.

Ok.

It seems though that the

problems facing the Democrats

are a lot less serious than the

problems facing the Republicans

from what you've explained it to

us in a way I mean when you

think about the actual

allegations that that Cynthia's

husband has faced.

Yes I mean not much more serious

than that these allegations.

Yes.

He's currently in Afghanistan I

believe working as a contractor.

So he's not even here in the

United States.

But again people feel that

because of the bad judgment that

has been demonstrated by Cynthia

in choosing to remain with her

husband who has been accused and

who has confessed to these

crimes in addition to her just a

lack of just a lack of trust in

her for not being fully

forthcoming in the extent of

this scandal just to make it

clear she herself is not facing

any charges.

Her concerns are now that she

has chosen to remain with a

husband who has definitely been

found guilty or has pled guilty

to I think some people.

Some people are given pause by

the moral dimensions of that.

Yes but I think an overriding

issue is simply she was not

honest and in her and how she

chose to explain the situation

to two fellow Republicans when

this started when this news

first broke.

And again when it first broke

the full extent of it was not

clear and she tried to downplay

it and she tried to hide the

truth.

Wow.

Councilman if I could turn back

to you.

You have a unique perspective on

the whole mandatory paid sick

leave issue that is now broiling

at city hall.

You're an attorney and one of

your practices I understand is

in wage and hour law.

That's what I do.

So what is your summation as to

this measure that was approved

by the City Council last week to

mandate private employers pay

sick leave to their full time

employees.

What are the chances that this

will survive scrutiny.

So for those that don't remember

you know we've got 140000

signatures attached to a

petition with a proposed

ordinance that ordinance very

detailed would apply to every

single employer in San Antonio

obligating employers to pay

mandatory paid sick leave and

that that would be enforced by

the city.

I expressed very serious

concerns whether you believe in

paid sick leave or not mandatory

municipal paid sick leave seems

to be preempted by state state

ordinance I'm sorry state

statute and the Constitution.

I raised that concern when we

were at city council and was

like Look I would love to live

in a world where everybody has

paid sick leave but the vehicle

by which we were trying to get

there which is a municipal

ordinance doesn't seem to be

enforceable.

Take my word for it.

I do this for a living.

And this week the third quarter

of Appeals seems to have been

affirming exactly seems to have

affirmed exactly what I'm

warning and that is that state

law preempts us from doing this

now.

What does this mean.

We're going to keep our eyes on

this.

You know the San Antonio

ordinance doesn't really kick in

until August 2019 when that's

when you know employers have to

start paying but I will tell you

if I had to bet money on it I'd

bet that either somebody will

file suit sometime in the next

few weeks here in San Antonio

seeking a restraining order and

some injunctive relief or let

you know before that happens the

legislature will end up getting

this and I believe it's dead on

arrival in Aust.

Is far from the end of this

story.

Sure the city councilman Manny

Elias San Antonio Express News

metro columnist Brian Chesnoff

fascinating discussion and join

us again next time for on the

record.