Good evening, everyone. I want to thank you all for coming out to our first community budget hearing after the budget has been presented by our city manager, and so you all being here just shows how much input you want to give, but also how important this is for our community. There are so many people to thank. First, I want to thank all the city staff that is here. They are out in full force here tonight, which is good for all of us, because if you have a question, any question, I am sure that we have the staff member here to answer that question for you. So please do not be shy. I know my district residents will not be shy to ask that question, so please do. Again, my name is Rebecca Villagran. I am the councilwoman here in District 3, and I would like to thank city staff for putting this all together here at St. Margaret Mary's. Thank you for St. Margaret Mary's for opening up this location. I would like to thank our city manager, Cheryl Scully, for being here, and all of the directors, Chief McManus, who is here, Maria Villagomez, our budget director who is here, and one of my council colleagues, Ron Nuremberg, who is here as well, thank you for being here, Ron. Commissioner and District 3 resident, Tommy Ackerson. Thank you very much for being here. Appreciate it. Now, first, before I go on, I also want to mention my staff, my city council staff, and I think many of you know them. First, I have my chief of staff, Ruben Lizalde, who is right there, please wave, Ruben. He's right over there, and then I have Chris Villa, constituent services director right over there. Many of you all know and love Chris over there. And then we have in the back Angela Cardona and Salvador Valdez. He's back there, so they are here to help and assist you in any way that you all need, so please, if you haven't met them, please do. Please go and meet them as well. And of course, I will be here, so come up and we can exchange cards, or I can give you my card. We can exchange information to just start building our relationship together. So again, thank you for this coming to our community budget hearing, fiscal year 2014-2015. And you know, San Antonio, we are just a growing city. You all know that. This is no surprise to us. And right now, we're very excited that we just got our triple A bond rating renewed again. This, but two weeks ago, I think it was very important for us as we move forward. Congratulations to the city staff and to all of us together. And on May 27th, the city council got together with our goal setting session. And in there, we identified some priorities that we heard constantly and with frequency in our offices. Now, those priorities that came, that rose to the top, that all of us had common ground on, all of us, were, that we made priorities was street maintenance and drainage. I think we all feel that and see that every single day in every part of town. Another priority was neighborhood integrity and revitalization. What does that mean? That's like code compliance, animal care services, street lighting, sidewalks, and then public safety. Also, we want to make sure that our neighborhoods that we invest so much in are secure and safe. We wanted to make sure with that. And of course, quality of life issues, our libraries, our parks, that those are made priorities in the city budget. And what our city manager presented to us last week at city council on Thursday was something that she and her staff and her directors of all her departments came out and said, this is how we can move forward. Now, I'm very pleased to say that there are no layoffs at all in this budget. And what you will see here is that is about $1.05 billion. So this is a very big budget. And we wanted to make sure that our priorities stayed on track with those really top four, the street maintenance, the drainage, the neighborhoods, public safety, and quality of life. So tonight, we're going to have the participation. You all are going to be able to see a video, go through what's going on, what the layout the city manager has, but then also for you all to give your input. And we're going to have either the city manager say a few remarks right now and then also go through the process of how we will be interacting with each other and then with the whole group later on today. I do want to say thank you all very much for taking time out of your very busy schedules after a long day of work. You're here because you care about your community and you care about San Antonio. And I appreciate that. And it's my honor to serve you. So with that city manager, Cheryl Scully, thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman. I'm Cheryl Scully. And thank you for coming tonight. We have a very short video. And this year it's even more abbreviated. It's about five minutes. But it gives you an overview of the proposed budget, which is balanced and represents the spending policy plan for the city for the upcoming budget year. Before we begin, I'm going to ask each of the staff members. We have someone at each table so that they can take notes and talk with you and answer questions. And several of us will also roam around the room. So if you have something specific from one of our major departments, we'll be happy to answer those questions. So staff and some of you are standing around the room. So just wait. Would you just stand and be recognized and identify yourselves? We have a lot of staff here tonight. And they'll be working with you to answer your questions. Thank you all for being here. Let's start with the video. Then I'll have a few other comments about some of the hot topics that we're talking about in the budget presentation for this year. And then we'll move into our table discussions and report out at the end of the meeting what you identify as those things that are most important as residents of the community. So let's start with the video. Increases the street maintenance budget significantly and strikes a balance among the community's many priorities. Does not include layoffs for uniform or civilian employees. These are priorities that you shared with us during the five community budget meetings held in May. More than 400 people attended and worked in small groups to identify the cuts that they would make as well as to add funding to an existing service. Following these community meetings the city council held a day long goal setting session and together agreed on the following budget priorities. To increase funding for streets and drainage develop a multi-year plan to improve and acquire more parks. Enhance the city's investment in education including more library services and adult literacy programs. Maintain and strengthen public safety without crowding out other services like streets, libraries, parks and human services. Enhance animal care, code enforcement and other programs to improve neighborhoods. Keep the economic development toolbox equipped to attract new companies and jobs to San Antonio. Fund and complete a comprehensive plan for the city including policies related to transportation, water, air quality and public spaces. Public safety is by far the largest expense in the city's budget. Two out of every three general fund tax dollars are spent on fire and police protection. The fastest growing driver of public safety costs is the health care benefits the city provides for uniformed employees. Health care for uniformed employees costs the city nearly double what it costs for civilian employees. In the city's recent community survey conducted by an outside pollster 70% of respondents said they want to see uniformed health care benefits brought more in alignment with civilian health care benefits. The fiscal year 2015 proposed budget makes changes to health care benefits for firefighters and police officers saving the city millions of dollars while still continuing to cover 100% of on-the-job injuries and offering better health care benefits than those provided to city civilian employees and better than those offered in other Texas cities. This follows the council's direction to ensure that public safety does not exceed more than 66% of the city's general fund budget. By maintaining affordable public safety costs the city can invest in other priorities. The proposed budget adds an additional $21.8 million for neighborhood street maintenance and drainage projects to the current $52 million in the infrastructure management program that is used for the continuous maintenance of San Antonio infrastructure. It will grow the infrastructure maintenance program by nearly 30% which will significantly increase the number of roads fixed this year. It adds funding for the maintenance and operation of a new library, two new senior centers, and new parks projects approved by voters in the 2012 bond program. It funds the hiring of two city veterinarians to conduct spay-neuter surgeries to keep the city's live release rate of stray animals at 80%. It provides resources for a new program to regulate vacant buildings throughout our city and finally it funds a code enforcement case management system to close cases faster and more transparently. The fiscal year 2015 proposed budget does not include an increased stormwater fee. Instead the city will review a new stormwater rate method and make recommendations to the city council and the community in the 2015 calendar year. The budget also does not include any funding for VIA's streetcar project.  So there you have it. The fiscal year 2015 proposed budget balanced no tax rate increase addresses the community's top priorities by keeping public safety costs affordable and does not include any layoffs for uniform or civilian employees. The city budget is the most important policy document the city council will consider in any given year and before the council considers adopting it on September 18th we want to hear from you. There will be five community budget meetings held across the city and two public hearings at the city council chambers. You can learn more at the city's website www.sanantonio.gov. A couple of things about the budget to highlight. The proposed budget does include increases in our street maintenance budget. So this year we're spending about $52 million for what we call our infrastructure management program and that's to repair streets and build sidewalks to repair drainage and to make improvements of an infrastructure nature in the community. This proposed budget includes increased street spending of about $15 million and another $7 million to increase our flood control protection and make drainage improvements throughout the community. And as we have looked at our community survey and talked with you all in the budget meetings that we hosted in May the number one issue that we heard about was more infrastructure management is make sure that we're increasing our street maintenance as well as improving our sidewalks and drainage throughout San Antonio. As a city we maintain 4,000 miles of streets. That's a lot. And so we have lots of choices in terms of where to spend the dollars and it is about priorities. And it's tough for the city council members to make choices because there are so many needs for street improvements throughout the city. But this budget does include increased funding to help us with those things that are most important. And we're opening more library services. I see Gene Brady here tonight who chairs our library board. So as we improve the educational opportunities and our library services that the residents want we need to make sure that we have adequate funding for that. Likewise with our parks. And I think Xavier is here. I see him our parks director. We're adding 123 acres this year alone. So as we open more linear parkways we want to make sure that we are having a quality of life for everyone throughout the community and able to maintain, properly maintain our parks throughout the community. We're also looking at animal care services. Kathy Davis is here. She has one of the toughest jobs in the city because she manages the stray pet population and also works on the live release rate which some of you recall 10 years ago and I see Sally's here as well who chaired our Animal Care Services Board for many years and serves on that board. We were less than 10% on our live release rate and now we have that up to 80%. And there would you agree there are still too many stray animals in the community? Yes, I see you shaking your head. So we're continuing to invest in that area because that affects the quality of life as well. So I want to spend just a couple of minutes before we get into the table discussion to maybe talk about the elephant in the room. That is our public safety costs and why we're studying what we are studying over the past year. So if, are the slides up? Am I pointing this here? Here? Okay, maybe I'll ask you to advance it. So public safety, when we had our May goal setting session with the city council, as you heard in the video, our police and fire departments represent two thirds of the general fund budget. And the general fund is that portion of the budget that's supported by sales tax, property tax, our CPS revenues. Since the city residents are owners of CPS, as residents and owners, we're entitled to a return on investment. And if it were a private company, they'd be paying taxes. So the payment CPS makes to the city is a return on investment. And Marion G is sitting here. He's the utilities director. And he works with CPS on their rates and their debt financings and oversees both SAWS and CPS from a rate perspective. So the council serves as somewhat the public utilities commission. They make those kinds of decisions and then in return both SAWS and CPS make a payment to the city. Those are the revenue sources in the general fund and they support what you'd consider basic city services, police and fire, parks and recreation, street maintenance, animal care services, the municipal courts, our health department, social services throughout the city, and the general administration of the city, human resources, finance, accounting, those very basic support services that allow the operating departments to do their job. In the general fund, our total city budget is 2.4 billion. And it includes three areas. First, the general fund. That part that I was talking about supported by taxes and our CPS revenues, 1 billion. And then the other two parts of the budget are restricted funds as well as that would be, for example, garbage collection. So our solid waste department, the fees that we pay as single family residential residents in the community, those fees pay for garbage collection. And those fees can't be used to support general fund activities, or the airport. Revenues that are generated at the airport by the airlines and by those who use the airport, those revenues stay with the airport. And then the other one-third of our budget is our capital construction. The voter-approved bond program as well as capital improvements for the convention center or at the airport, the consolidated car rental facility. And, of course, that debt service is supported by the airport. In the general fund, 1 billion of the 2.4 billion budget, 2-thirds of that is for our public safety. And that is, of course, a core service of the city. 2-thirds of the budget. So what the council said at the goal setting session was, let's make sure that we stay under that 66 percent. Let's stay within that and not let it grow at an amount above that 66 percent because when that happens, then that means we have to cut street maintenance, we have to cut parks, we have to cut libraries, we have to cut the human services. And the expenses of those two departments has grown faster than our revenue growth over the past five years. In fact, public safety is now consuming 66 percent of the budget and it's grown as a percentage of the budget by 10 percent over the past five years and our expenses are growing at a faster rate. So the council said keep those costs at 66 percent. We're not recommending any reductions. In fact, over the past eight years we have increased the number of personnel in our police and fire departments by almost 500 staff. We've added almost 500 police officers and firefighters over the past eight years. We've reduced our civilian personnel by 1200 staff. All through attrition, no layoffs, but we've reduced our civilian workforce and we're trying to constantly look at ways that we can work smarter, provide better service delivery, be better about how we're going about our business of servicing the residents of the community and do the very best that we can. As a part of examining public safety, we looked at what the cost are within that department and healthcare is a huge part of that. The expenses for public safety personnel have grown tremendously. Over the past three years, we've seen an average increase annually of our claims expense of 20 percent. Whereas in the civilian side of the budget, the percentage increases much, much less. And they have a different healthcare plan than our civilian personnel. And so about a year ago the mayor and council appointed a task force to examine pension and healthcare costs. And what we're doing in San Antonio is really no different than what's being looked at and studied by cities across the country. In fact, this weekend, the Dallas city budget was presented and made public and they're actually looking at reducing the number of public safety personnel this year so that they don't have to cut libraries and parks and animal care services. We are not in that position, but we need to make changes. And so my proposed budget does include changes to the healthcare coverage. Now, we're not talking about any injuries on the job or anyone who's injured in the line of duty. What we're talking about is general family healthcare. And we're asking our public safety personnel to participate in the cost of healthcare, which we think is reasonable. So we had a task force. There were 13 members. There was labor representation. There were also representatives from the community who work in this field and are experts on healthcare and pension. And they had a number of meetings met for a total of over 30 hours discussing in great detail healthcare costs. And it's complicated material. Very complicated. Next slide. And so you see here is the budget where we spend 66% on public safety, and infrastructure, parks and recreation. Then all these other departments are in that one third. So if public safety grows to be a greater and greater percentage of the general fund, you see what happens. It squeezes out or crowds out those other services that you all think are important. I spoke with several of you before the meeting started and you were asking about sidewalk construction or animal care services or ensuring that our libraries and our parks are well maintained because that's a part of quality of life as well. So those are all the other services and you can see all those colors of the other city activities. Okay? Here's the percentage of healthcare costs paid by employees just nationally so you can take a look at these numbers. On a national average employees contribute about 43% of the total cost of healthcare. Our civilians contribute about 30% of the total cost. That's your premiums, your out-of-pockets, your deductibles and our own uniform employees pay about 9% of that total cost. Now, in other major cities in Texas, the civilian and uniform healthcare are identical. Now, you might say, well, maybe there should be a little bit different. Maybe it should be a little bit more. And on the next slide you can see number of dependents. Now what this means is how many people are covered under per employee. The national average here is about 1.2 dependents. Peer cities is 1.1. You can see in Dallas, San Antonio is 1.2 for our civilian employees, but we have twice as many city of San Antonio uniform dependents. And so when you sit down perhaps once a year with your family and say, okay, how do we want to go about healthcare for the year? We both are employed. Who has the better healthcare plan? You can see it's an easy answer for our uniform personnel because the city covers such a high percentage of the cost. On the next slide you'll see that here's how much we spend per civilian at the top of the page. The city is spending per civilian employee about $7,000 a year. This was 2013 costs and for our uniform personnel we're paying nearly $13,000 per uniform for active healthcare. And then you can see the other cities in Texas in how much we're spending, how much they are spending, and you can see that ours is so much higher. So this whole effort in conversation is about how do we manage our costs? How do we ask and encourage our employees to participate in the cost of healthcare? Next slide. Here's total compensation so you can see where our employees fit as compared to other cities. Austin being on the far left on the second bar here, San Antonio, total compensation, and then the other cities in Texas. So from a salary, special pay perspective, as well as benefits, we're up there at the top. This is for police and this one happens to be police. Okay. And on the next slide and here's our fire. So you can see we're up there at the top on both of these in terms of total compensation. On the next slide we good? One more? Or that's it. Okay. So what we're working at is something that is fair. We highly regard the work of our public safety personnel in their chosen field. This is what they do and they should be compensated well. They are. What we're asking for is their participation in the cost of healthcare. And I think we all know that everyone is there a person in the room that doesn't contribute toward the cost of healthcare for their family. Everyone does and we want them to participate in that cost. It's a major cost driver and what we're talking about in terms of this proposed budget is if we get their participation at a level that's better than our civilian employees but not where it's at today we're estimating that we could save $10 to $15 million a year. So these are big numbers in the budget and important so that we don't have to cut those other essential services that you all care a lot about and want to see us do more of. It is complicated. We are in collective bargaining discussions with our police personnel right now. The fire union has not agreed to come to the table and negotiate but we're hopeful and we encourage them to do that that they will do that. So this is what we're working on, identifying those major cost drivers in the budget managing our cost to the best of our abilities and presenting our elected officials, our city council members with the best information and recommendations that we can to manage our costs going forward for the city so that we have a balance in the community that we have a balance of services provided in the best way possible. So tonight what we're asking you to do is help us in this process to learn a little bit more about our budget, what's included, how we go about our budgeting and then to give us feedback about what's most important to you. Maria Villagomas is going to give you a couple of instructions. We'll ask you to work in your table discussions and then once you conclude your work we'll ask you to report out, identify a person at your table that will report out the consensus of your conversation this evening that will give us input. We'll share whatever we receive tonight from you all with not only the council members who are here but with the entire city council so that they'll have a chance to hear more about what you would like to see included in the budget. Maria. Thank you Cheryl. Well now that you learn a little bit about the proposed budget included in the city's proposed 2015 budget what we're going to ask you to do is tell us what you think about this proposal. So at your tables you have a facilitator that is going to help you with this exercise and we're asking you for two questions. The first question is for you to tell us what are those, okay is that better? I'm sorry let me rewind. So now that you learn a little bit about the 2015 we're going to ask you a couple of questions so we know what you think about this proposal. So at your table there's a facilitator city representative that will assist you with this exercise and we're asking you for two questions. The first question is if you can identify up to three programs that you support in the budget that you don't want to see any changes made. So for instance if you're in agreement with the amount of dollars that we have allocated to the street maintenance program then perhaps that's one of the priorities that you want to tell the city council that you don't want to see any changes. So if you can provide us up to three of those. The second part of the exercise is perhaps if there's a program that you were hoping to see increase in the budget or add to the budget that is not currently included in our proposal we also want to know what that is. So since the budget is balanced already presented to the council if for instance you want to add more to parks or to the libraries we're going to ask you to identify an area that we can review so we can continue to keep the budget balanced. So there are handouts at your table like the one that I'm holding on my hand right now that there's more information about the general fund budget. There's also some attachments that will include more detail explanation on some of the areas like the city transfers non-departmental etc. So we're going to give you 30 minutes to do this exercise. We're also asking you to identify a spokesperson for each of your tables that we can go back and hear from them what are the priorities of each of the tables. So we'll start now it's 7.15 and we'll have 30 minutes for this exercise. Thank you. So the tonight's event after our city manager has proposed the city budget she presented it to the city council members us on Thursday and it's a compilation of work that she's been doing with her staff with the department directors but then also we had five community meetings that now cast those apart prior to the budget presentation all of that input and she presented a budget for us on Thursday August 7th and now this is our first post budget presentation and so now our residents today get to see the numbers, get to see where we are and give some more community input today so this is where we are right now. Fantastic. How can people learn more about this and what's the next step after this process? So what people can do to learn more about this is go online to find out what it is that was presented the PowerPoint presentation at San Antonio.gov I'm sure you have a link on now cast and then what you can also do is to participate in one of the community hearings to there about four more that need to take place, that will take place and then we have some public hearings that will take place at the city council chambers so people can come give their voice there at that location at the public hearings or they can call and email their city council members and be there when the city council gets to adopt it in September September 17th is the day that city council will go forward and adopt it but even before then council members will be having budget work sessions where we will really get into the nitty gritty of what's in each department and ask the questions that we need to ask and those start for the council members starting tomorrow actually. So that goes into my next question how people can put input in if they weren't here tonight. They can email, they can make phone calls to our offices and they can just get in touch with us that way to give that input that they'd like to. What's the most important issue to you? So one the important issues we have a lot of it's a big city and we have a $1.05 billion budget and the important issues for me are to make sure that those main priorities of the residents which I hear every day are part of the top tiers of our budget and that is our street maintenance our drainage our neighborhoods to maintain the integrity of the neighborhoods and also neighborhood revitalization and then quality of life meaning let's look at our parks, our libraries our animal control services and then also public safety to maintain safe neighborhoods a safe city and that's very important for all of us. All of those combined are kind of my top issues here in the city. Thank you for speaking with us today. Absolutely, thank you all for being here. I appreciate it. Yes, thank you. All right, well I would like for you all to start closing up your conversations if you would. I know we have a $1.05 billion budget in 30 minutes to discuss everything right now. We could do this a much longer and believe me city staff has worked an entire month on this budget and longer so we're going to go ahead and have one person reporting out from each table. We ask that you be audible brief and concise and I heard that we have a volunteer already. Table 6 has volunteered to go first. Thank you for being so proactive and please. And I ask that we all let's pay attention and respect what they're sharing. Thank you very much. I represent Table 6. Hello.  Here at Table 6 we decided to support and no change on the street maintenance. Sidewalk maintenance. Residential street lighting we feel those are deterrents. Parks libraries and we'd like to extend the hours of the libraries that are current to what they were before before they were cut. We also would like to support domestic violence unit. If it's there we don't want it cut it's something that is needed in our city across the board doesn't matter what district you're in what payback it is needed. Police and fire I don't know what that means. We support them. Add or changes our add or changes would be the library fees and fines. We would like them those fees to stay in the library. So go back into the library that would save some money to our budget. We would also like to resell used equipment when upgrading that goes according to furniture whether it's furniture bleachers etc. Anything computers like code compliance the laptops resell them. Also we have a goal to have 3 million in residential street lighting starting with district 5 and any other districts that really have been neglected. We would also like to add training for domestic violence team across the board also. Our cuts are reduced.  I didn't decide that so don't look at me. Cut bonuses in city administration and we would once again ask to cap a pay on executive pay for sitting employees. Thank you very much table 6. Okay. Yes table 12. Good evening. Testing testing million. Can you hear me? Good. At our table we decided that what we wanted to keep the same would be anything having to do with library services. We do not want to see any reductions whatsoever in services related to domestic violence. We want that to be left alone and protected. We want our parks everything about our parks to be left alone as well. The changes and additions we proposed at our table are $3 million to be added for residential street lighting to reduce executive pay to increase taxes at one half in property taxes to get commercial properties to their owners to pay their fair share in terms of taxes because so many of them don't pay their fair share they get away with it. They sue the county and nobody can afford the legal fees like corporate people can and so they get away with not having to pay and we need that money coming into our city so they need to pay their fair share from their multi-billion dollar profits. Group supports the city manager's proposal to align uniform benefits with civilian health care benefits and we would like to see more investment in streets and sidewalks at about $15 million to fix our streets and sidewalks because streets are in trouble they have a lot of potholes. Thank you. Thank you very much. Up here, table two. Good evening. Okay. Table two. We had several people that left so it doesn't look like the library took over the table. I have a lot of friends but we agreed that we agreed with the budget as is with the increase in streets and drainage and also we do not want them when they negotiate with the police the domestic violence unit because it's very important in San Antonio and we do want to we did agree with the I can't read his writing I'm sorry we're in line with the police and our benefits would be in line with the civilians we are increasing our funds if there's any many left over we would like because this is a popular thing I went to the other budget hearings and people feel very strongly that maybe their library hours should be extended because a lot of families the only time they can go is in the evening so we would like if any money is available that it go there and if there's any left over well I don't know if there's going to be so I won't even go there but essentially we agree with the streets and drainage the maintaining the making the police and fire higher benefits equivalent with the other civilians so that's it thank you very much ok now we have table table number one thank you at table number one there were three areas that we very strongly supported one was street maintenance Mrs. Scully mentioned that we had 4,000 miles of streets in San Antonio we need to support those streets we need to take care of that take care of the potholes it's a very strong item number one item number two was the park system we've got 244 parks in San Antonio almost 15,000 park land we need to support what we've got we need to protect and preserve that very strongly the third item was animal care with there are only 36 officers in animal care to look out for our dogs and cats on 4,000 miles of streets we need to take care of that situation as soon as possible it needs to be funded very strongly the change we recommended one of the items that got the most support was residential street lighting and we recommend that perhaps that might be increased by about three million dollars a year and the suggestion was that that fund might come from the city attorney's office the complaint was that we spend too much money in hiring outside highly paid legal consultants instead of using our own staff here so that was our recommendation thank you very much thank you Mr Bartlett alright the next table okay we're going to go for seven and then eight alright we're from table seven our additions three million in street lights improvements in district three and district five and energy efficiency we support solid way services definitely street and sidewalk improvements and pre-k for SA education protect our natural resources definitely I feel like every day we deprive earth of its natural resources and that's what we need to survive here we can't even live on earth we can't have these conversations unless we recycle you know don't use too much water don't be in the shower forever don't water the grass when it's like blazing hot outside okay definitely don't waste food protect everything that we have here forever reductions a million and a half in H park hemisphere park we feel like there doesn't need to be any changes made to the park it's fine the way it is it's beautiful still four million dollars in city attorney office IT overhead upper management a reduction in fleet stop requiring employees to put miles of vehicles and lastly reduce mayor and council budget by 2.1 million dollars and that's it thank you all right table eight please all right well we want to first start off and thank everybody for coming out tonight and putting their input and thanking the city for providing a balanced budget for the citizens of san Antonio and with that being said we're going to look at the programs that we support we really support animal care funding for libraries especially the technological funding parks we really appreciate the fitness programs that are being implemented here in the city of san Antonio economic incentives to attract new businesses the vacant building ordinance we're really excited to see what happens with that in the future recycling of course we really like that and domestic violence unit we definitely want to keep the support for that as well now this is what we would like to see more of we would like to see more spain neuter clinics especially for mixed breeds aggressive breeds we'd like to see city council pay increase we would also see like to have more cyclists support such as bike lanes signage driver education as well as cyclists education and how to pay for this increased funding so we would like more aggressive collection of invoices penalties and fines we would we would also like to see perhaps in the future 1% property tax increase so we asked around and we did the math and so if we were to raise the property tax by 1 cent that would add an extra 7.5 million dollars to the budget and it would only average about an extra 14 dollars per household per year so it's pretty reasonable on something that we can definitely look into in the future as well as higher fees for Bexar County communities that use city solid waste facilities but do not practice recycling so we want to be more stringent with that and definitely reiterate the importance of recycling and creating a better community thank you table 8 next okay over here uh oh table 4 already standing up alright here we go table 4 alright hello everybody so our table of the things we really really wanted to keep was the sidewalks for handicaps and seniors and uh Janie who's behind our sign here was really instrumental in making sure that that was illustrated for our group and also to keep our infrastructure moving forward so folks really like to see that um the second thing would be our the libraries and the adult literacy program in the libraries along with the computers Mary was instrumental in that to make sure that we knew about the computers that are in there and we want to make sure that we know that we have access to that uh at our libraries the third we got kind of an A and B on that first being the code compliance folks with the uh technology upgrades and everything for them to make sure that they can do their job uh effectively in the second we see you over there Kathy animal care as well keeping that budget so let's go ahead and flip one of the things we wanted to add was I want to hit you street lighting street lighting safety the benefit to a decrease in drugs and prostitution and overall crime um we definitely wanted to see that that added to the budget and the pay for it uh we talked that we did talk a little bit about the executive pay and a little bit about property tax though what we kind of talked about was the fund balance reserve though to pay for it so that is table four thank you table four we're gonna move on to this table back here uh table five good evening everyone my name is Javier Murillo and I'm here for this group uh I do like your budget it's you know balanced by law that's great um but we have a few suggestions here uh what we like in the budget is um parks and public works um it's an alignment you know we like that uh paid control uh you know pays off the street I mean don't kill them but I know you guys open another center but we need faster response to pick them up you know uh we can be holding on for days for you guys um libraries um it's great what you guys been doing with the libraries uh keep the funding uh the same level um on the only form employees uh for them to pay a little bit more you know maybe a couple of percentage three percentage uh more into it um and the needs um for our city is uh we need more compliance more aggressive co-compliance you know people parking in their yards uh businesses uh not paying over the graffiti making our neighborhoods you know look you know like a crime-ridden area um street maintenance we need uh some streets we need you know badly maintenance uh in lights um the one one of the reasons that we're here my wife and I is uh the challenge fees there used to be free then it went to 250 now it's 400 one day uh we're not going to be able to afford it and there's going to be a lot of kids out there in the street that now have nowhere to go because their parents work until six o'clock and a lot of those people they're young people they don't boat they don't have time to be here but my wife and I now it's $400 so we thank God we have the money to pay but a lot of people don't and our city has a lot of children and they're the future um and uh possible cuts is uh somebody suggested some mansion that's just sitting somewhere in town that we're not doing anything with it uh sell it or lease it or do something with it some properties also are just sitting you know we need to get rid of them or or random lease them make some money with them and maybe a little tax increase to fund core programs that benefit our children I see this growing you know our children are not going anywhere they're staying here thank you next table table three so our table had a lot of discussion and I would say we probably didn't reach consensus on very many things but we had a lot of really great discussion I think our biggest takeaway was that most of the issues that were raised were things that could not really we couldn't solve them in this 30 minute session but some really good discussions and up here are some of the points that we talked about so we want to support um I'm actually going to skip down some members wanted to support a city council increase also supporting code compliance public safety including police and fire um the budgets for parks and libraries and the domestic violence um unit of the police department and then the way that one way that was proposed to pay for some of these things was to be a small tax increase and also an increase in street lights thank you thank you next table alright I think I got it well um table nine had two citizens here Chuck and Betty and the first thing we talked about was they liked about the budget um the most passionate about was public safety don't cut it they don't want to lose any police or fire um as far as the health care they were I don't know if they had enough time to really vet that out but they definitely don't want to lose any police and fire personnel in terms of changes they did want to see more code enforcement more money more staff he was even trying to chuck chopping away money at each of the programs and to the fitness initiatives less for Hemisphere Park redevelopment I think we probably need to give him another 30 or 40 minutes and he'll probably he'll balance it out for us but that was their priorities today so thank you now I believe we have all of the tables reported in I want to thank you all for participating today um we will be here some will be here afterwards to answer any specific questions for you and again all of these all of your comments will be collected and we will have them available for you all too next Wednesday we'll have them available for you all and again on your table there should be other information about the next community hearings as well as the public hearing that will be taking place the city council will be voting on this September 17th I'm sorry September 18th at city council chambers I do want to share just a couple of announcements really quickly first I also want to give district 3 residents in the area some kudos because I was I know one of the things that came out a lot was animal care services and one thing that has happened this fiscal year the start of this 2014 fiscal year through June district 3 has had about 2100 the city that's more than any other in the city which shows two things one the residents you all are getting educated about the issue and two when you make the opportunity available you are taking advantage of it so we're going to continue with that as well so thank you all for making that a priority because we're knocking in on that number here and making it safer here for our neighborhoods with the stray animal population so congratulations have a good night thank you all and we'll see you soon thank you


The Cavalcade of America, presented by DuPont. The Story of Anne Royall. Adapted for radio from material and new biography of Anne Royall, written by Bessie Rowland James. With the beloved and distinguished star of the American theater, Miss Ethel Barrymore. The DuPont Company, Makers of Better Things for Better Living through Chemistry, takes pleasure in presenting Miss Ethel Barrymore as Anne Royall, the little old woman who lived in Andrew Jackson's day, and risked everything she had her hope for to defend the principle of freedom of speech. My name is Anne Royall. Are we going to stand by while money changes fill their pockets out of the national treasury? Are we going to allow people to undermine the very principles of this democracy? I say run them out before it's too late. I despise camp. I despise these pious meetings held in the name of a cause. Those catawalling females and dandies who can't see a hand outstretched in need at their door. I say break them up. Keep this splendid country free of hypocrisy and corruption. I'll talk too much. With blazing eyes and lashing tongue, she went up and down the country exposing falsehood, defending the most precious right in America, the right of free speech, the cornerstone of our personal liberty. Anne Royall believed passionately in free speech, so passionately that she rocked a nation to preserve it. A petticoat editor who stopped at nothing and spared no one in her defense of the right to say what she believed. In July, 1829, she was known the length and breadth of the United States. Who remembers her now? Surely someone remembers. My name is John Coyle. I remember Anne Royall well. In fact, I was the first to realize how much influence her wagging tongue and biting pen had. People were believing her. Now I live by the principles of brotherly love, you understand. But Anne Royall went too far. She broke into a meeting and accused me in public of treachery. Treachery! The next day, a few of us called on Mrs. Royall. This is indeed an honor, gentlemen, that you come all the way up the hill to my house. Sit down, won't you? Mrs. Royall, we're not here to mince matter. We won't take much of your very valuable time. There is a certain matter. You made a most serious charge against me in public yesterday. I only speak what I know. Your society meets regularly with a sole purpose of undermining the government. Mrs. Royall, for many years you've been writing and talking what you think up and down this country. That's quite correct. People have listened kindly. Listen kindly?  It's the truth, every word. Lead, you don't use words like that to a lady. Perhaps we had better say Mrs. Royall is too strong in her opinion. Poppycock, people have a right to know about politicians and organizations that corrupt this free and noble air we breathe. That's neither here nor there. Just a moment, lead. Mrs. Royall, we don't wish to suppress anybody's earnest efforts and sincere convictions. But we must warn you, we will not tolerate any... You will not tolerate. You with those hypocrites at work undermining this free government. That's enough. It's not enough. Ever since the world began there have been those who thought they could strangle the truth. But in this country it's different. Here a person can speak the truth freely. I always have and I always will. Perhaps we must remind you there are courts. There isn't a law you can take me into court on. And we'll make it our business to find one. We'll stop you Mrs. Royall if we have to comb every bit of common law from here to Doomsday to get you.  Do what you will. I'm not afraid. And I'll talk as long as there is anyone to hear me. I have the most powerful weapons in the world on my side. Truth and the free right to speak it. I remember Anne Royall. My name is Thomas Swann. I was prosecutor at her trial. As bad a time as I ever had in court. The woman was dangerous. She said certain people held political jobs too long. With my record of 28 years as district attorney. I was glad to be the prosecutor that morning when Anne Royall's case was called. Sit here please Mrs. Royall. The judge will be along presently. There they are. I never thought they'd drag me into court until they've trumped up charge. It's perfectly legal Mrs. Royall. You mustn't take it lightly. As your lawyer it's my duty to warn you. You're here to answer serious charges. I beg you to use caution. Mr. Cox should become as adult as the rest. Order in the court. Order in the court. It's Honour William Cranch presiding. All this fuss and feathers to make good their threat. The prosecution will open his case. Proceed Mrs. Royall. Your Honour, gentlemen of the jury. The prisoner at the bar Anne Royall is charged with being a common scold. Common scold an old forgotten lord dragged into the light. I must warn the defendant that this charge is legal and valid. And carries with it the punishment of the ducking stool. Ducking stool that's for witchcraft. There'll be order in the court. Proceed Mr. Cranch. Defendant Anne Royall is charged by the people of the district of Washington with being a common disturbing of the peace, a common brawler and a common scold.  The court will be in order. Mr. Cox is my lawyer. Will you permit that pack of lies to go on? Mrs. Royall we lose everything if you're going to shout out light and court like that. Are you or shall I tell the court myself? Before the examination of witnesses begins is the defendant ready to answer the charge as stated. Your Honour I'm prepared to answer the charges but I didn't know witnesses would be called today. My lawyer... Your Honour I protest. The truth of the matter is there is not one man or woman in all Washington who would bear Mrs. Royall witness. Then I'll call on heaven. I'll get witnesses in the court if the court will grant me 24 hours. Your Honour I object. One moment Mr. Foan. Mrs. Royall this is a fair trial. Call your witnesses for 10 o'clock tomorrow morning and we shall proceed with the trial. Your Honour court is adjourned for the day. Remember Anne Royall I'm Sally Stack the best friend she had before the trial and until her death. I worked with Anne over her writings. She called me Secretary Sally and I think I knew her better than anyone else in the world. Her courage, her love of country from her pioneer childhoods her eccentric clothes because she didn't care and had no others. The gods must have chuckled as we reached home that afternoon. Little shabby old women defying the world. To open the window Secretary Sally we're home and I want to get the stench of the courtroom from my nostrils and I want to get the sound of those voices from my ears. The voices we didn't hear struck my ears the loudest. Of a sudden my old friend General Van Ness has developed poor ears and good legs. Twice I spoke with a hurried arm Sally we live in a mightily shrunken world this evening. Cowards. All of them. A year ago they stood around like gaping fools to hang on your lightest word. But witnesses Anne you must get them. There's just one I want, just one. With him here I could forget all the others. And he would turn in his grave now to see what they're doing to his wife. No, no he wouldn't. William Royall would hold up his head and fight as he fought the Redcoats and he'd have me do the same against my enemies. But who are my enemies Sally? Why have they done this to me? Because they're cowards Anne. And you have no fear. But the ducking school. I'm old. They know. They know I couldn't survive it. So I'll go. Lawyer Cox no doubt. I come up from his papers for air. Is Mrs. Royall at home? She is, sir.  Heavens we've always received people and always will. Today's no different from any other. I'm glad you feel that way Mrs. Royall. I'm not sure I agree. Well William Leeds. And what is it this time? I've come with an offer Mrs. Royall. So we will bargain this time. You've been trying to get a pension for some time Mrs. Royall. Rightfully so for my husband's services in the revolution. If you will cease writing. If you will withdraw your books and hold your tongue that pension can be arranged. If you think you can silence me. You can live comfortably and quietly the rest of your life. I'm not interested Mr. Leeds. Well perhaps we might arrange to dismiss this trial. This whole distressing matter will be forgotten. And if I should refuse. The choice is yours madam. Well that's clear. We're in the open. And here's my answer. Go home and tell your filthy schemers and Royall will write and talk the truth as long as there is a spark of life in us. Very well Mrs. Royall if that's your answer. But I will not be responsible for whatever your enemies do to you. And? And what's that noise? You can't fight the whole world Mrs. Royall. Look out the window. And look out. From all the fine work of your friends Mr. Leeds. Hoodlums that would prey on women. I'll answer them. And don't go to the door. Mrs. Royall you're in danger. I'm not afraid of this danger. It's in the open. What do you want? Your forehead's bleeding. Nothing.  Now you Mr. Leeds. You and your friends have done a fine night's worth. Now get out. Get out before two women push you out. Get out. And sit down. Shaking like a leaf. I'm alright. Sally where's my bonnet? Heaven's are not going out now. With that mob? I'll go the back way. I've just thought of my last witness. And I'm going to get him. Who? Andrew Jackson, president of the United States. My name is George. I belong to General Jackson. I was his man servant. I shall never forget Miss Royall. That evening when she come and marching up the steps between them pillars. A pounding with all her might on the knocker. General Jackson always did let anybody who wanted to see him come right in. Figured if folks couldn't see the president there. There wasn't much use of having one. Ask Miss Royall to come in, George. Tell Cooks that another place for supper. Yes, General Jackson. But if I can say it, she don't look hungry. Master, if she don't look hungry this time, she look mad. I expect so. Show her in. Come in, please, Mrs. Royall. General Jackson. Well, evening, Miss Royall. Good evening, ma'am. Sit down, won't you? I'm glad to see you. Thank you. Those are rare words for me to hear these days. So they're after you, eh? You know? Oh, yes. News trickled in here once in a while.  They stoned my house tonight. Hmm, that's bad, ma'am. Time to send a guard. No, no, that's not what I want. Mr. President, you've always been a friend of mine. Why not? We're too kind, ma'am. Sort of rough with frontier mud on our shoes that sometimes splashes on the carpet of these nice parlors.  That's kind of you, sir. I'm afraid not many others feel as you do. Not backing down, are you? No, Mr. President. Would you go on the witness stand for me? Witness stand? Yes. And tell them what I said is the truth, that I have a right to say it. What are they trying to do to our country when a man or woman can't speak his mind?  But I'm President of the United States now. Mr. President, couldn't I subpoena you? So you're going to subpoena the President, eh? That will make history. Ma'am, I'm blamed if I wouldn't like to see you do it. But if the President could be subpoenaed, he'd be spending all these days in court with a number of folks out after his high. Everybody hating an old woman who wants the truth to be known. They gave us a constitution. They said a lot about freedom of speech and ideas. We've still got the Constitution, ma'am. Maybe folks are beginning to forget what it means. I know, Mr. President. I was a little girl when it was written. Maybe we were all children then, only now we've grown up and the dream has vanished and the land is black with evil. Mr. President, an affording little man who are betraying the noble heritage of the giants of our American childhood, Washington and Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson. Ms. Royal, I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll have Major Eaton, the Secretary of War be a witness for you. And I'll tell him to speak a word for your character. Oh, thank you, Mr. President. Now, will you stay and have some supper here? Wish I could, Mr. President, but Sally's staff is alone waiting. Well, maybe I can send some supper with you. Hello, Gasser. Bleemed if I don't think you stand behind the curtain and listen. Oh, no, sir. You go fetch the plumpest white-leg-horned chicken you can find in the henhouse and bring it in here. With the head. With the head. And hurry, because Royal don't want to wait. William Crunch, judge on the bench at the trial of Anne Royal. Remember her? I'll never forget her. It was a troublesome business. She had friends in high places, but she had enemies, too. And already the case had begun to reek in the newspapers. Though most of the editors hated and feared Mrs. Royal, they were turning our witchcraft trial, as they called it, into a punch-and-duty show. And small wonder as the trial went along. I remember that afternoon, Coil was on the witness stand. As the court knows, I bear only Christian charity in my heart for this misguided woman whose poor talents have been put to so unfortunate a use. Yes, yes, go on, Mr. Coil. What did Mrs. Royal say when she broke up your meeting? She accused us of treachery. She said we were trying to undermine the government. And accused you of treachery? Well, of course that bet is a rather strong word. And, of course, untrue. Yes, of course. We may have talked over the clerical party. Lies, Your Honor. Proceed with the testimony. You see, the woman is obviously malicious and hysteric. Lies. In the course of her speeches and criticism, what else did Mrs. Royal call you? Only my love of honesty. Answer the question, please. She called me Pumpkin Willy. Thomas Tims, that is your name. Yes, sir. What is your occupation? I am quarter of the Senate. Mr. Tims, to your knowledge, has the witness ever spoken slanderously? Oh, yes, sir. Indeed. Will you please tell the court when? Mrs. Royal said that Mr. Watterson and I were the handsomest men in Washington. And if that isn't slander on all the other Washington men... I protest. Are we to make this court the laughing stock of the country? You did that when you built the ducking stool at the Navy Yard, Mr. Swan.  Will the prosecution go on? That is all, Your Honor. We have too much respect for womanhood to undermine this woman's character further. The witnesses have concluded their testimony that Anne Royal has made a public nuisance of herself as a common scold. The prosecution rests. The honor of old John Agee didn't take the step. And the Secretary of War, Andy Jackson, must suspend him. He'll give you a good character. My name is John Agee. Major Eaton. You are Secretary of War, are you not? Yes, sir. What do you know about Mrs. Royal's character? I know Mrs. Royal to be a courageous and honest woman. And I've never known her willfully to slander any human being. I know her only as a woman whose pen dares to write the truth. Now we'll be honored in the court. We'll do it.  Even Eaton's kindness doesn't mean a thing. You'll see. I would like the defendant herself to take the stand. Mrs. Anne Royal. And remember, be calm. I'll be calm. Please, Mrs. Royal. I know my way, thank you. Anne Royal, you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give in this trial shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So help you, God. I do. And Mrs. Royal, would you tell the court in words why you objected to this meeting? Yes, I'll tell them. I heard a lot of catawalling females and a lot of young men talking against this country. I told them they'd better be home practicing Christianity. Then what happened? They threw books at me, so I drove them out. I told them not to come back to the neighborhood until they could behave decently. Mrs. Royal, did you accuse prominent office holders of self-interest? You mean by that that I think there are too many people in the government who care more for their jobs than their country? Yes. And if the donkeys in this country can't see... Oh, no, I object. Personal opinions are irrelevant. That's what you're trying me for, isn't it? Objection overrule. In this case, the personal opinions of the accused are exceptionally relevant. Mrs. Royal, you run the risk of fine for contempt of court. There isn't enough money in the world, Your Honor, to pay for my contempt of this court. Now proceed, Mrs. Royal. Your Honor, I have very little to say. I doubt you could hear it over the bang of the hound to have run me up this tree. But if the wish of our good friends to make war, let it be war. Let it even be the ducking stool. I've no ideal but a love of humanity. No politics but the welfare of our country. For this country, I shall fight every evil I find. And wherever the shoe fits, let it be worn. What I say is not the truth, then there are laws of libel to prosecute me which have not been invoked in this court. You can't do this to me. I'm an American citizen with a right to free speech. Your Honor, you have considered the evidence in the case of the people versus Anne Royal. How say you? Is the accused guilty as charged or not guilty? Guilty. My name is Richard Wallach. I remember Anne Royal. Yes, I guess I was one of the few friends Mrs. Royal had that terrible afternoon. I was only 18, but I worshiped Mrs. Royal for her kindness and wit. Gladly, I went with her from the court. Her step was unsteady, but she would not lean on my arm. But a court of justice and a court of the United States could be so used. But Mrs. Royal, the judge waived the ducking for only a $10 fine, and Secretary Eaton himself paid the fine and barmed. I'm going to keep the peace like a common vagrant. Major Eaton must be deeply shamed. But don't you see a few of us believe in the rights you spoke for today. Right? No, they're dead. Dickie, you're going to be a great journalist some day so learn your lesson. Think and talk their way or else you too will be a voice crying in the wilderness. Do you believe that?  Who am I?  Oh, let's hurry, Mrs. Royal. This is terrible. No. Let's rest here for a moment, Dickie. You asked me a question a moment ago. Yes, but I shouldn't have asked it. How could you have any faith left? No, you were right to ask, and I want to answer. Here, with the sunshine on us and the elm trees whispering above us and the white buildings of the capital gleaming there on the hill. No, Dickie, I'm not a voice in the wilderness.  Then they haven't stopped you, Mrs. Royal. Stop me? Let me tell you, Dickie. I have plans for starving a newspaper, a paper to speak the truth and defend the right. That has been my faith and that I have lived, I will die by it. I believe in this country and its people. I believe in the divine principles of justice and freedom for which these people fought which will grow up as the nation grows. I believe that no petty evil or temporary wrong can harm the enduring greatness of the American spirit. Freedom of speech, that cherished heritage of Americans has come down to us because patriots like Anne Royal, that little old woman in her bonnet and shawl fought in a time of prejudice and malice to keep that ideal alive. And for her struggle to preserve this American tradition of free speech Anne Royal takes her rightful place in the cavalcade of America. Thank you, Miss Barrymore. We're proud to have you as our guest on the cavalcade of America. And now, before we present our historian, Dr. Frank Monahan of Yale University, we have a story from the wonder world of chemistry. At a dinner in the city of Washington, two beautiful transparent globes were displayed side by side. One of these spheres was crystal, pure, flawless, pure art object worth at least $50,000. Guards stood by to see that it did not fall and break. The other sphere looked so much like the $50,000 one even experts could not tell the difference. But it was made of DuPont's lusite plastic at a cost of less than $150. This crystal clearness of lusite is one of its fascinating qualities. It has a strange ability to carry light around corners. That is why it's being used for surgical instruments to bring cool light to the exact spot where it's needed. It also has an incredible power of reflection. That's why highway markers are being made from it.  And lusite is only one of the new developments in this field. Truly, this is an age of plastic. One of the most recent developments is DuPont's butycyte plastic. When stretched, butycyte eases back slowly to its original shape. Placed between two layers of glass, the clearest and strongest safety glass yet produced. And it gives when something hits it, thus taking up part of the shock. Butycyte holds the glass so tightly that even though a windshield may be crushed into small bits, the fragments adhere to the plastic binders so well you could roll it up like a rug and take it home with you. There's a real spirit of adventure behind the research on plastics. In 1929, DuPont organized a special plastics research unit composed of chemists with a fresh, original approach to unsolved problems. These men are now looking ahead to big things. But don't think it's easy to create these modern wonders. It may take from five to ten years of continuous research to develop a single plastic. Yet who knows? Perhaps someday we shall all live in plastic houses, drive plastic motor cars, fly in plastic aeroplane. Meanwhile, in true DuPont plant, in Lemister, Massachusetts and Arlington, New Jersey, more than 2,700 workers are busy producing modern plastic products that make good the DuPont plant. Better things for better living through chemistry. And now, Dr. Monahan. Next week, Cavalcade presents one of the most fascinating stories of the entire American Revolution. The story of Enix Crosby, the spy. He was a daring secret agent who was frequently in danger of death at the hands of both the British and the Americans. His thrilling and poignant story of James Fenimore Cooper and the materials for the first truly American novel. But the real story of Enix Crosby, as will be portrayed in next week's Cavalcade by the noted American actor, Henry Howe, is far more dramatic than Cooper's celebrated novel. On tonight's program, the orchestra and musical effects were under the direction of Don Voorhees. Until next week at this same time, this is Basil Riesdale saying good night and best wishes from DuPont. This is the National Broadcasting Company.