Commissioners Court - Regular Meeting

Six. We'll start with opening prayer, pledge of allegiance. And commissioner Justin Rodriguez, you have the floor.

Great. Thank you, judge. Good morning, everybody. Thank you for being here on this last day of March. We have in attendance today, father Abraham Anthony.

Father, if you'd come up to the dais, and as you do that, I'm just gonna say a few words of introduction. Father Abraham is an Indian born American citizen who has faithfully served as a Catholic priest for over thirty years, dedicating his life to faith, service, and community. He's currently in the final stages of his PhD, congratulations on that, at the Oblate School of Theology in Texas, having previously earned degrees at Santa Clara in California. The first half of his ministry was spent serving some of the poorest communities in remote regions of India, an experience that profoundly shaped his vocation and deepened his commitment to compassionate service. Today, he serves as the pastor of Our Lady of Grace Church in San Antonio, a vibrant growing parish of more than 1,400 families.

And at the heart of his ministry is a guiding principle, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. This conviction continues to inspire his work fostering a ministry rooted in empathy, meaningful connection, and genuine care for others. Father Abraham, thank you for being here and leading us in prayer. If you would all please rise if you can and that'll be followed by the pledge.

First of thank you for this opportunity, and thank you for giving me this honor to present ourselves to God and ask for his blessing upon all of us in our county. Let's present ourselves into the presence of God. Oh God, creator of all, source of wisdom and understanding, we ask for your blessing and guidance upon the honorable judge and the commissioners who serve the people of this community, upon all who serve in this court, and upon all of us gathered here. Grant us a clarity of vision that we may discern what is right and just. Give us courage to stand firm in what is good and humility in all our decisions.

Open our eyes to see as you see. Open our hearts to love as you love. Open our mind to understand with the wisdom that comes in your name. Give us a clear vision that we may know where to stand and what to stand for. For unless we stand for something, we shall fall for anything.

We recognize the rich heritage of this community shaped by generations who have called this place home and mindful of the enduring spirit symbolized by the Alamo, a reminder of sacrifice, courage, and perseverance. We are grateful for the strong presence of our military community, those who serve at Joint Base San Antonio and beyond, and for all the veterans and their families whose dedication and sacrifice help safeguard the freedoms we uphold. Let's remain mindful of all those we serve, the diverse communities, cultures, and traditions, and enrich Bexar County. May we listen with openness, speak with clarity, and act with compassion and accountability. May we work together in a spirit of cooperation, seeking solutions that promote justice, opportunity, and the well-being of all.

May our efforts strengthen our community and reflect the highest ideals of public service. Grant us the grace to lead with integrity, to act with humility, and to work together in a spirit of unity and respect. May all that we do be guided by your truth and love so that our decisions may bring about greater justice, peace, and the flourishing of all peoples. I offer this prayer on behalf of all present here in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thank

you father for that wonderful prayer. Please join us in the pledge to our nation's flag. I pledge allegiance.

Alright. Commissioner Clay Flores, you've asked for a point of personal privilege. You have the floor.

Thank you, judge. I just wanted to remind everyone that today is the last day of March. March is colon cancer awareness month, and I wanna thank everyone to help make this, colon cancer awareness outreach a success. We had a total of 23 events that my staff and I organized. Special shout out to my director of special projects, Amy Putney, who was the point of contact to every single one of them.

We have one more left, April 12. Get your rear end gear, from a national organization, so make sure you come come to that. Sign up for that. And I also wanna thank my colleagues, commissioner Tommy Calvert, commissioner Grant Moody, commissioner, Justin Rodriguez, and of course, judge Sakai for, for their support in this. We did a whole calendar of events, and, it was really great to see all of the precincts participating.

People from from all over county, came out to different things. We gave out thousands of checker colored t shirts, thousands of checker colored tote bags, of course, blue ribbons. Thank you for those of you who've been wearing your blue ribbons and have blue on today. And I also want to thank just everyone who worked with you, Leo, Larry, Greg, to get the purchasing stuff through and also our facilities department who lit up the the county the courthouse towers in blue. And make sure if you haven't hung out downtown, hang out here tonight so you can finish seeing the tower, the Marriott, so many buildings that I just wanna partners, too many to name.

So thank you to all the county employees who volunteered, and so please check your colon because colonoscopies save lives. Thank you, judge.

Thank you. Let me remind the court that we'll be taking a lunch break at around 12:00, and for and whatever we don't get to, we will reset come back in the afternoon. Alright. We'll take up the first agenda item. It's request of commissioner's court to identify items from consent agenda. For additional discussion for to approve remaining consent agenda items, commissioner Clay Flores, any matters to pull?

Seventy one and seventy two.

Seventy one, seventy two. Commissioner Rodriguez.

Yes, judge. Item number 48, I understand. I'm not sure if you have this note, Kate, but I believe 48 wants to be delayed. I was just informed doctor g. I don't if she's up here, but why don't you just pull it for now judge if we need to Pull it.

Okay. We'll pull. We'll determine

I understand she wants to delay that. So Alright.

We'll we'll we'll get to it. Okay. Alright. Commissioner Moody? Commissioner Calvert? Yeah. Yes. Alright. Commissioner Moody, you have a point of personal privilege. You have the floor.

I just wanted to to take a quick minute to recognize, for those who weren't aware, Bob Bruce, who was Bexar County Appraisal District Board elected representative passed on Sunday. Bob was a dear friend. He if you don't know much about Bob and his history and and commitment to public service, He was a small businessman. He and his wife Nancy started Bernie Stage Airport, which is the executive airport on the North Side Of San Antonio. He's started an ad agency decades ago, has been hugely successful, but has always had a passion for public service, has always been a champion for public policy, and has just been so active in our community for so long.

We lost a titan this weekend, and I lost a dear friend. I just wanted to to recognize him. If we could have a moment of silence for an elected official who's passed.

So noted.

Thank you all.

Thank you. County clerk, did you you you've indicate you have a point of personal privilege? Yes, ma'am. Yes. Yes, ma'am. Is it on the consent?

Yes, sir.

Okay. What what

Good morning, judge. Good morning, commissioners. On item thirty nine

Thirty nine? Okay.

I bring forward a approval of donation for the Bexar County Family Justice Center from the Bexar County Clerk's Office of $1,500. We've donated over $11,000 from all the Valentine's weddings that we do or any courthouse weddings we do. We support many organizations, but I'm so honored to provide the Bexar County Family Justice Center with $1,500 to continue supporting our younger generation, our community to offset the budget a little bit. So it is an honor to do this for Chandler and for district attorney Joe Gonzalez and many others from the district attorney's office. Thank you all.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Alright. Is there a motion to approve?

Judge, I'm sorry.

Alright. What? Okay.

Just for the record, we're also pulling item number 34 from public works.

Okay. 34.

Judge, I move to approve the balance of consent.

Second.

Motion by commissioner Grigas, second by commissioner Clay. Further, any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstention? Motion carries. Let's take up should we go ceremonial? Yeah. That's what we've been doing. Right? We're gonna shift to ceremony. We'll come back to the individual consent items that have been pulled. Alright. I am going to start with the four a presentation of service pins, recognizing employees for twenty five plus years of service.

I'm gonna start at the person that has the most years of service or recognition, and then we'll go back. The first one is wow. And I know this lady, and I I worked with her when I was a juvenile judge. Maricela Morales with juvenile probation, are you here with with your department? Your if you're here with your family or your friends or your colleagues, bring them all up.

Jill a lot today. So please everybody.

Everybody here for juvenile, come on

up and help support. Support Marty.

Thanks. I I how how old were you, Maricela, when you started? You were just a baby, weren't you? Yes.

I was.

You were a baby. Okay. Forty years of service. Thank you for your long time. And you're still there, and you're not going away. Right?

Don't say it.

Alright. Jill? Don't say it. You have the floor. Yes. Thank you so much. Is this the juvenile probation department?

A lot of them. Okay. Yes. As you've noted, Maricela joined the, BCJPD in 1986 as a probation officer one, and she moved up the ranks through numerous divisions as a two, a three, assistant supervisor, supervisor, manager, and finally as a deputy chief in 2008. After earning her BA in public justice at Saint Mary's University, of which she is still heavily involved in supportive of Saint Mary's University.

She has been a strong advocate for collaboration with numerous public and private sector stakeholders representing the department with energy and optimism. Anyone who knows Modi will tell you that's her MO. Anywhere she goes, people know her, and if you accompany her on any outing, you run into her fans in the community consistently. It's lovely. So let me share a few of the initiatives that she's most proud of and those that'll have a lasting impact on Bexar County.

In the early nineteen eighties, she implemented a grant under the direction of chief David Riley to create the pre adjudication and family preservation program. She brought together a team, visited an outside jurisdiction, and helped to create our first juvenile drug court in Bexar County. The family preservation program was the first time the department worked with experiential and enrichment activities for children and families, and that set the precedent for the work that we do today. In 2013, with the guidance from judge Laura Parker, she put a team together to develop and implement the Restore Court. The Restore Court worked with girls who were chronically running away and at risk or engaged in sexual exploitation.

At that time, many were pregnant. Thankfully, today those numbers have gone down significantly because of the work of the department and others. From Modi's from Modi's early work, the department remains very active with the care coordination for supervisors and the Alamo Area Coalition Against Trafficking, of which we housed the department for many, many years since back there again. So that's a lot of the work that she spearheaded. Also in 2333 under the guidance of Chief Lynn Wilkerson, Modi brought together a team to collaborate with Child Protective Services to create the crossover youth practice model for children in CPS custody.

The CPS involved children were overrepresented and continue to be overrepresented in juvenile justice, as you all are very aware. So the crossover court has worked to provide better alternatives to care and serves as a national model for this work. We have people from outside of the state come here to look at our program. In 2017, she works to establish our specialty court that addresses children involved in gang membership. Her team was able to secure a three year federal grant to implement that to reduce violent behavior, increase positive outcomes for children of those youth, and that team is here today as well to support her.

She's known for her ability to connect stakeholders in the community and has developed a strong network of professionals and lay people like who children's well-being as their goal of their their work and life goals. So we are so thankful to have her. We know that she won't be here forever, but we're gonna enjoy every single second we have with her. So thank you for honoring her today.

Well, I will be retiring July 31 year.

Oh my

That will be my official day with Bexar County. But forty years, I mean, they've gone by quickly. Just like a second, you know. But it was like a roller coaster ride with my life in juvenile probation, and I had my hands up the whole time. And it it was a lot of fun.

The county has supported me through some of my darkest times, you know, the passing of some of my family members, and I never felt alone because there was just so much support at our department. Jill mentioned everything that I've done in the department in the forty years, and I'm proud of the team efforts that we created new opportunities on how to provide services for the children in our community. And these new initiatives were creative ways for our department. Juvenile probation has always been ahead of their time. Judge Sakai knows this.

We were never afraid of change. We never did things because that's the way we've always done it. We changed and we looked to forward to the new day. So I've always been proud of being a juvenile probation officer. I have developed a lot of friendships within the department and then in the community.

I am grateful to Bexar County for all the memories, but I'm gonna tell you now a little bit about what I'm gonna be doing. Mhmm. For the past almost three years, I have been doing ministry work with adult incarcerated ladies and family members who have someone incarcerated. Most recently, I entered in partnership with another advocate, and we are applying for a nonprofit status. The name of the organization is Alpha Zen Rise and Restore.

Currently, we are fortunate enough to find financially support all our initiatives. We communicate with incarcerated ladies through Securus. We message back and forth. I talk to them about spirituality and life skills information. We write parole board letters for them.

We connect them with the resources in whatever community they are returning to in Texas. We try to focus on the Bexar County ladies. But within the system itself, they've kinda heard about us, and we get referrals from all over Texas. So we assist families navigating a very intimidating TDCJ system, but we're not afraid of it. We know how to navigate through it.

I am on the core team of the archdiocese families who need us. They provide resources to family members who have loved ones incarcerated. We send flyers to of these monthly meetings to the various parishes. I belong to Lioness, a group of justice impacted women. I am a resource for their community organization.

I'm a member of Texas Incarcerated Family Association, TIFFA. The local chapter meets monthly at Saint Agnes Catholic Church, and we provide support to families who have incarcerated loved ones. Now I'm gonna direct my remarks to commissioner Clay Flores. I wanted to thank you for coming to, the meetings at juvenile probation, the Alamo Coalition Against Trafficking meetings, and thank you for supporting community initiatives. Thank you for showing up to some of the local vocational graduations.

One of the ladies that I worked with, she graduated with a technical certificate, and she came up to me and said, look, I've got a photo with the commissioner. When you show up, commissioner, it makes a difference in people's lives. Commissioner Calvert, I don't know you very well like some of the others, but I just wanna thank you for all your efforts to bring awareness to the second chance job fair, especially the one that's taking place in April on April 15. I've learned through my interaction with incarcerated ladies returning to their communities that San Antonio, we have the strongest second chance program in Texas because of community efforts. My question to you is this.

I was at a meeting in an all day, parole meeting in Austin one day, and I forgot I was with Austin people. And I said, hey, San Antonio has the best reentry program. And they said, Austin has a good one too. Do you have a reentry coalition? And I didn't know the answer to that.

And so I said, I'm gonna have to ask commissioner Calvert because he wouldn't know. But I think that reentry coalition is important because in working with these ladies, I've noticed the strengths and the challenges that our community has in the second chance. And there are things that we can do to make it better. Right? And commissioner Sakai, you have my heart.

I've known you for forty years. You know, you were a DA in the juvenile section. You were an associate judge. You were a pitcher for the juvenile probation softball team. You remember?

Oh, what doctor

That was

a lot of doctor Tom Broussard. Right?

Under Broussard.

That's right.

That's right.

That's right.

And he was the star of the team. Right?

Remember? Of course. Yeah. Yes. Yes. And children's court judge, and and here you are, commissioner. I thank you for the email you sent David Reilly when I was promoted to deputy chief. You said to him in the email, tell Maricela I said so. Thank you for believing in me. So I just wanna thank everyone and just wanna tell everyone that I will continue supporting the Bexar County community through my efforts.

Commissioner Clay Floyd.

Before before you all come up for a picture, Maricela, I just wanted to say, so, you know, for those of you who don't know, we met before I was commissioner when I used to go to the anti human trafficking coalition. Do you

all still have that? Yes.

Okay. I need one of my Frankie, I need one of my staff to be going to those. So I just wanna say thank you so much. I didn't realize you had been here for forty years. Thank you for your youthfulness, for your energy to continue to fight for the least of these, and I hope to continue to partner partner with you after your retirement.

At some point at some point, when we become a nonprofit, you will be seeing me because I will be coming for funding.

Commissioner Covered.

Maricela, you've made such an impact. What a what a biography of accomplishments that you and your team have done together. You've been a part of seeing the justice system evolve and pushing that evolution.

There was typewriters when I started. Had a pool

of secretaries. I use a typewriter every now and then. They're still good. And I I thank you for the openness in which you took on the challenges before you and the heart that you gave to the children that needed it and the families that you continue to serve, the women that you're going to help. And thank you, as you know, my my part of my life's work has been in human trafficking, and I helped set up some of the first human trafficking task forces across The United States.

So I have special place for victims of trafficking and and child exploitation. And, yes, we have a reentry council, and I think you would be an incredible member now and in the future. Commissioner Atkinson started it, asked me to take good care of it, and and it's a strong council of folks in the justice system. And you know, clearly God's not through with you yet, and we're so grateful because you have so much to offer. So to your success because it's our community's success, and we thank you for just spreading the love and the change that you have. You've done an amazing job and forty years. That's amazing too. So thank you.

It is. So

Baricela, let me let me quote. Lyric

know commissioner Calvert, I had already called you, Sabia Price. And I had said, when I retire, I wanna come see commissioner Calvert. And she says, just tell me the time, the date, tell me the topic, and we'll get to you to see him.

Maricela, let me just say, I love you for the dedication to the children and families that you served and you connected with. You you you have really individually made such a significant difference in our community, especially in the juvenile probation department the juvenile justice system. And you've served well for all the chiefs going back to talk to Tom Broussard, David Riley, Joe Castillo, Lynn Workleston, and now Jill Monter. And so juvenile probation is that's where grew up in from the DA's office and started in the juvenile courts and now I sit as a county judge. So I have a question for you.

Forty years. This is this is I think the first time this we've had an employee come here, I don't know if that's a record or not. Monica, let's check it out and highlight it if it is. But what would you tell the employees that are behind you, especially those that are sticking it out? You said it was a roller coaster. So yeah, there was probably some highs and lows. So how what's the success of sticking it out for Bexar County? What would you tell the employees behind you who say, you know what? I wanna retire now. What would you tell them?

You gotta love what you do. You gotta do everything from your heart, And then the professionalism comes out. But just like the, priest said, they've got to know you care to make a difference in their life. They've got to know that you have a connection with them, that you have a relationship. They're no different from us. And like the pope has said, why him and not me? Our lives could have been different.

Would you please come forward and accept your pen? And let's take a picture. Everybody, come forward. Come on. Come on, guys. Come on. Let's take a picture.

Jill. Jill, let me know when

to party. I'll come over there. I know. We gotta have a good one. Alright. Alright. Sheriff, I'm teaming up. God, you got like one, two, three, four, five. Let's start with Jacinto Davila, twenty five years. And I assume, sheriff, you wanna do it separately? Or do you wanna bring all of them up? Separately? Okay. Can you step up here with your family, your colleagues, your boss.

Good morning. Good morning, judge. Good morning, commissioners.

Thank you

so much. Yes. We have five folks hitting twenty five year reunions with the sheriff's office, and so we'll start out with Jacinto Davila. He is currently assigned as a transportation unit corporal. He he entered service with the sheriff's office 01/10/2001, and he's been assigned as the CERT training unit instructor, December 2014, training academy instructor, 2019, and was promoted to corporal in January 2020.

He's got 25 certifications to include prisoner control transportation, weapons handling and control, basic SWAT, block armor, a r 15 armor, chemical munitions instructor, taser master instructor, ballistic shield instructor, firearms instructor, rifle instructor, and red dot instructor. So somebody certainly somebody that's devoted quite a bit of his illustrious career to to making sure that others are educated in how we do business. He's he's he's married to Terry Davila, and they have several children together. Demi Davila, 30 years of age, Ana Lisa Davila, 27 years of age, Darla Davila, 21 years of age, and he does have a special interest spending time with his family. I can't think of a better way of spending spending your off duty time.

So corporal, come on up.

Well, I just wanna say thank you to the county for Bexar County for giving me the opportunity to serve twenty five years, and my wife for being with me for most of those years and putting up with everything that we've gone through with with Bexar County and all the hours that I've had to put in to work. But but thank you. Appreciate this.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. Why don't you come forward? Come forward, accept your pen, and let's take a picture, chiefs. I'm gonna try a coffee this this week. Congratulations. Get it. I'll take it. Hey, chief. Come on, chiefs.

Squeeze in, Chris.

Alright.

Let's do Jason Gonzales. You're next.

Okay. Deputy Jason Frank Gonzales entered service also 01/10/2001, so classmates to corporal Davila. He served in the detention bureau from 2001 to 2014, law enforcement bureau from 2014 to the present, and he's currently assigned to the mental health unit for the last nine years. He's got various certifications as well, master peace officer, mental health officer, t Cole certified, basic instructor certified, basic hostage negotiation course, and the advanced crisis intervention training. He is married to his wife for twenty two years, Naomi Gonzalez, and they have they have two sons, 17 year old Gabriel Gonzalez and 17 year old or seven year old Dominic Gonzales.

I'm sure going on 17 though. Right? Several special interests and hobbies, spending free time helping with events involving Gabriel's high school band, trying to get ready for his senior year, which can't even imagine, and attempting to teach Dominic the basics of soccer. So another another great dad and great husband, but also great deputy with the sheriff's office. Jason, come on up.

Morning. Thank you for having me and my family here today. It's been a great honor to serve the county for twenty five years, and I look forward to ten more years. And hope everything goes well just like the last twenty five. So thank you for having me.

Thank you. All

right. Would you come forward please? Okay. Derek? Easter, you're next.

Okay.

Derek is too young to have twenty five

years of service. He absolutely is. Up is investigator Derek Easter. Entered service also January 2001. He was started in detention in January 2001, promoted to law enforcement patrol, October 2004, and he served till 2008 in patrol.

Served in narcotics from 2008 to 2013, and SWAT from 2013 to 2015. He was promoted to investigator in July 2015 and served with the SHOT team, the sheriff's habitual offender team from 2015 to 2021. He he was assigned to organized crime covert operations 2021 to 2024, and he's currently assigned to property crimes. He has a master peace officer license and police instructor certification. In his military service, he served with the United States Army as a combat medic, and is an Iraq war veteran. He is married to sergeant Alicia Easter, happily married, should say. Right, Derek?

Yes,

sir. Absolutely. She keeps him in line, keeps us all in line, really. He has a he has a a child by the name of Amarie. He's 26 years of age, and his special interests or hobbies that are included in his file, he was on the board of directors for the DSABC. It should also be noted that his shoes always match his t shirt, and he is my man like $20. Come on up, Derek.

First thing I just do, I wanna thank God, my Lord and savior Jesus Christ for blessing me with this this career that I've had. I've been blessed to have this career. I've had a lot of fun. Twenty five years blew by. I wanna thank the sheriff and the administration for giving me the opportunity to to do so many different things, serve the community. Thank the commissioners for giving us the resources, the wages, the benefits to to support our families. I wanna thank my wife for putting up with me all the long hours that I've I've put in when I come home grumpy. And I just wanna say, hopefully, I can do another five, another ten more, serve the community and, you know, do God's work. Thank you very much. Oh, one thing I wanna say honestly is I'm very proud to wear this patch.

Extremely proud that my wife is wearing this patch as well. And if you see the patch my son's wearing, it's but I love them.

I love them. But

thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

Sheriff Sheriff, we gotta work on that.

Sheriff. Alright.

We gotta work on that. If you have a question, come forward except you did.

You

Congratulations.

Mark Anthony Nava.

Okay. Sergeant Mark Nava, began his career with corrections in 02/08/2001 as a clothing technician. Through dedication, professionalism, and strong commitment to service, sergeant Nava was promoted to deputy on 11/03/2008. In 2011, sergeant Nava was selected to serve on the special emergency response team, the CERT team, demonstrating the ability to perform in high risk and high pressure environments. Sergeant Nava continued to advance earning the rank of corporal on 08/06/2014 and serving as a detention training officer beginning 05/15/2015, where a key where a key role was played in mentoring and developing new personnel.

On 04/07/2018, sergeant Nava was promoted to the rank of sergeant. Since that time, sergeant Nava has held several critical assignments, including the detention crime scene unit, the contraband abatement team, and most recently serving in an administrative leadership role. Sergeant Nava earned his peace officer certification on 01/04/2013 and was awarded master jailer proficiency on July 2025, rather, recognizing a high level of expertise and commitment to the profession. With over two decades of professional dedicated service, sergeant Nava is recognized for leadership, professionalism, and an unwavering commitment to the safety and security of the community and fellow personnel. We thank him for his years of of dedicated service, and I can honestly say sergeant Nava is one of those go to utility players that no matter where we put him, he's going to do well and exceed all expectations.

So congratulations, sergeant. Come on up.

Good morning.

Good morning.

I just

wanna thank the sheriff's office for this opportunity, and I'm honored to serve and protect our community and and the sheriff's office.

Thank you. Come forward.

Roger Flores, you're next.

Okay. Last but certainly not least, Roger Flores. He's a jail support services manager at the sheriff's office. His hire date, he came he entered service 02/12/2021. He's he's he had he's a GED instructor for inmates within the jail, a jail program supervisor from 2004 to 2022, and jail support services manager from 2022 to present.

He's got an American Correctional Association certified correctional manager, GED certified test administrator, Bexar County leadership development program graduate in 2011. He holds a bachelor's in mathematics education from UTSA, and he's a graduate of the sergeant major academy from the United States Army, sergeant major academy. Military service, thirty one years of service, ten active duty, and twenty one years in the reserves. He's retired as a command sergeant major. I did not know that.

Wow. Three combat tours and received the legion of merit, three meritorious service medals, and one bronze star for service in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bosnia, and military police services. He's he's married to Diana Flores and he has several children. Melinda Dominguez, 34 years of age, Claudia Flores, 30 years of age, Roger Flores the third, 29 years of age. He he does enjoy fishing, gardening, and finding new restaurants. Avid He's an avid Texas Longhorn fan. Mercy Hook them.

Hook them horn.

And he's awaiting promotion to grandpa in May. So congratulations to Roger. Thank you, sir.

First of all, I just wanna say thank you for allowing me the time to be here. I wanna thank God for allowing us all to be here. I wanna congratulate the lady that did forty years. That was very outstanding. I wanna thank my family, my wife. I want to thank all my coworkers. I want to thank the sheriff and his staff, his leadership team for the opportunity to serve for twenty five years. I continue I want to continue serving, God willing, and I'm just really really blessed to be here

with you all today. Thank you

very much.

Thank you. Alright. We'll continue with the ceremony items. Four b, presentation of a proclamation on behalf of commissioners court recognizing National Area Health Education Center week, March 23 through the twenty seventh twenty twenty six, and

the South Texas Area Health Education Centers. Commissioner Rodriguez. Thank you, judge. If we can have those that are here for the Health Education Centers program. I'll read the proclamation.

Thank you for being here. The proclamation reads whereas Bexar County supports initiatives that strengthen the health care workforce and improve quality health services throughout our region and whereas the area Health education centers AHEC program is a national initiative designed to enhance the supply distribution and retention of health care professionals through partnerships with educational institutions and community organizations. And whereas the South Texas AHEC is headquartered here in San Antonio and administered through UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, works to foster interest in both health careers among students, prepare future health professionals, and provide continuing education opportunities for the current workforce. Whereas the through collaboration with schools, healthcare providers and community partners, South Texas branch supports healthcare exploration programs, clinical training experiences and health care delivery across South Texas including Bexar County. Whereas national AHEC week observed March twenty third to twenty seventh recognizes the contributions of AHEC programs nationwide in preparing health professionals and supporting community based training that improves health care.

Now therefore be it resolved, the Bexar County Commissioners Court recognizes March 2026 as National AHEC Week signed by your commissioners court. Let's give them a big round of applause. We love to we love to hear a

few words. The floor is Thank

you very much. Good morning, judge Sakai and the commissioners. For the record, I am Maria Danette Lapis Blum, professor at University of Texas Health San Antonio. And with me is miss Martha Castillo, who's one of our community health workers and community health workers educator. I would just like to thank you for that proclamation.

We want to bring more visibility for AHEC or Area Health Education Centers in Bexar County because we are responsible as Commissioner Rodriguez has highlighted and read in the proclamation in improving the quality and the quantity of health care providers of rural and underserved communities in South Texas, especially here in Bexar County. Our programs include pipeline programs for middle school, high school, as well as early college students for them to think about a career that includes health care because we need to help our community healthy. So thank you very much and I appreciate the proclamation.

Wonderful. Thank you again. Please come up and and have a picture. Thank you again. Thank you all again. Thank you.

And I want to recognize Martha. Martha, you're with the head by the school board.

That's right. Trustee. Thank you for your service.

Thank you, sir.

You're welcome. Commissioner, you have the next one. Presentation proclamation on behalf of commissioner's court recognizing Gabriel Quintero Velasquez. Ten year leadership milestone as president, chief executive officer of Avenida Guadalupe Association. My friend,

Gabriel. Gabriel,

thank you for being here this morning. Let me read this proclamation and well deserved recognition. Whereas Gabriel Quintero Velasquez, a native of San Antonio is an architectural designer, cultural advocate and nationally recognized community leader whose career has been dedicated to preservation, civic engagement and strengthening the historic West Side through accountability to place and people. Whereas Velasquez has served for ten years as president and CEO of Avenida Guadalupe, the historic West Side's authoritative steward of the Guadalupe Street corridor rooted in Mexican American cultural identity. Whereas under Velasquez's executive leadership, Avenida Guadalupe Association has strengthened its role serving as a working bridge between residents and the systems that shape their lives while advancing preservation, revitalization and community well-being.

Whereas at the heart of the Guadalupe Street corridor, Plaza Guadalupe serves as a living center of the West Side fostering confidence in place and an environment in which community stability and economic opportunity can take root and endure. Whereas through long term investment, strategic partnerships, the Avenida has expanded access to essential services such as healthcare, supported cultural expression, managed its growing portfolio of commercial and affordable housing properties including more than 200 units serving our seniors. Whereas as a catalyst for neighborhood economic development Avenida Guadalupe Association strengthens the physical and cultural center and character of the Westside guiding growth with accountability to the residents and families who call our West Side home. Now therefore be it resolved that the Bexar County Commissioner Court hereby recognizes Gabriel Quintero Velasquez witness our signatures this March 2026. Thank you for your service signed by county judge Peter Sakai and your commissioner's court.

Big round of applause. Thank Gabriel, the floor is yours. You wanna share a few words?

Well well, thank you all so very much, commissioner Rodriguez.

And and

I've gotta tell you, I'm humbled to be here with y'all that are such heroes and heroes of mine. And at the same time, I'd like to say that I'm also very proud of y'all. Such an achievement to to lead with such integrity. This is a a unique commission. I wanna just very quickly say that that the director before me, Oscar Ramirez, and the director before him, Therese Hernandez and Danny Hernandez and, Roger Carrillo who passed away, not very long ago, David Garza who went to lead neighborhood services San Antonio, Ernest Olivarez, the the, founding president of Avenida Guadalupe, and Hermundo Rodriguez, the founder from Guadalupe Church along with Dan Dan Macias and all of the the leaders that that have made Avenida what it is.

I'm I'm the one that gets to take advantage of of telling their story. So it's it's ten years. You know? I I see the twenty five and and the forty years, and I and I and I think to myself, they're so right. You have to love what you do, And Avenida is just such a surprise that it touches me in so many different places that I go to work every day.

I'm very happy to serve the community. So I wanna say I I begin believing, but working there, it shows me that that I'm on the right path. And and and there's nothing that that can be done without the wonderful staff and the wonderful leadership there. That's why Rosa Ramirez is here with me, and she's the one that does all the heavy lifting. So I really thank Rosa, and thank you all so much.

Guys, thank you. Alright. This is a special day. I get to do the next presentation, which is also very near and dear to me, the presentation or proclamation on behalf of Commissioners Corp recognizing April as child abuse and awareness month. So everybody, I understand we have various organizations here. In behalf of the child abuse awareness month, Blake Casa, Angie White, CEO Casa is here. Judge Monique Diaz, are you here on behalf of the Children's Court? Child safe. I understand you're here. Louie? Randy, are you here? There you go. Child welfare board? Who else? There's Whole

host of people.

Whole host of people. Alright. I'm gonna read out the proclamation. I'll read out the proclamation that we have. Proclamation for, I believe, Child Safe, CASA, and Child Welfare Board. Alright. Alright. Here we go. Proclamation, whereas Bexar County and other local and national organizations recognize April 2026 as National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and whereas in 2025, the Texas Department of Child Protective Services reported 4,800 confirmed cases of child abuse with two thousand three hundred of those who are under the age of five. In Bexar County, there are five child fatalities.

And whereas, National Child Abuse Prevention Month is attended to raise public awareness about preventing child maltreatment and enhancing child well-being in your community. This campaign stresses the importance of recognizing that child abuse and neglect is a serious problem affecting every segment of our community, and finding solutions requires input and action from everyone. And whereas the Bexar County Child Welfare Board, Child Safe, CASA, the Texas Department of Family Protective Services, and Belong, along with many community partners, work together to provide effective child abuse prevention programs and events in the community. These events will educate the community on the importance of recognizing that we must work together to increase awareness about child abuse and continue to promote the social and emotional well-being of children and families in a safe, stable, nurturing environment. Now, therefore, be resolved that the commissioner's court of the County of Bexar hereby recognize to proclaim the month of April 2026 to be National Child Abuse Prevention Month in Bexar County, Texas, and urge all citizens to join the national and local effort to prevent child abuse and neglect witnessed by the signatures of the court.

Miss Angie White, you have the floor.

First of all, good morning, judge Kain and the commissioners. I'm doctor Angie White from the CEO of Child Advocates San Antonio. I also sit on the child welfare board. I'm glad, like many other leaders in this community are with me this morning. I want to take a moment to acknowledge their work every day by partners across this community for our children, Bexar County Child Welfare Board, SJRC Texas, CPS, Children's Shelter, Child Safe, Roy Masson, of course, Casa, and every single person and individual who walks alongside our children with love and compassion.

The agencies sometimes pinpoint this work, but we're not the only ones doing it. Your compassion of everybody that works with children, vigilance and unwavering advocacy, especially you, sir, are the backbone of our child welfare system here in this county, because we find children's safety and stability and we all want them to grow up in a family and not in a system. However, on Friday, we did remember 13 children that we know were lost and also rang a bell for the children we don't know about that have lost their lives to child abuse and neglect, and we must renew our promise that no child in Bexar County will ever be forgotten. This memory drives our unified mission and our strength and commitment to protect every single child and to support every family in need. This month, we reflect on our progress, and I thank you for these proclamations.

And we still like to look at the work that's ahead. I really want to offer special thanks to Lucy Adame Clark, who was with us Friday. Thank you, Lucy. Commissioner Moody, for your ongoing and tremendous support. But I really want to take this opportunity, because I don't know if I'll have another one, to say thank you, Judge Akai.

You have my heartfelt gratitude and the gratitude I believe of this community. You spent decades championing the welfare of children and the well-being of children and families here in Bexar County, not just in your current seat, but for a long time. Your leadership and deep compassion are inspirational to me personally, and you've transformed how our community responds to this dreadful plague that continues to affect us with children. You inspire all of us to do better, listen harder and always put our children first. So thank you for your lifelong dedication and reminding us that children is not just the work of government protecting children, not just the work of government, it's the work of the community that truly cares.

Because of you and everyone around me here, our hope for children to be all safe in our community still exists in Bexar County. Thank you so very much. And I think Randy.

Thank you, Angie. Judge, I personally wanna thank you. I wouldn't be here right now as the CEO of ChildSafe without you. You spearheaded our children's advocacy center here in Bexar County many, many years ago. So personally, thank you from me. So thank you for the work. Tommy, commissioner Calvert, thank you so much for the support. We wouldn't have our home on the East Side without you. About twelve years ago, we started our Cardboard Kids campaign here in Bexar County. The way that we launched it was we launched it for the six thousand five hundred confirmed victims of child abuse in our community that year.

They sold out overnight. We weren't sure that it was gonna take off. It's now grown to I think we're in our twelfth year. We've given about 1,200,000 of those Cardboard kids out to raise awareness inside of our community. The forty eight hundred number of confirmed victims of child abuse sounds like our numbers are going down, but that's a legislative change that happened a couple years back to the confirmation of, neglectful supervision cases inside of our community.

As a Children's Advocacy Center, we have the opportunity to work extremely close with law enforcement, the DA's office, the Department of Family Protective Services, and the partners who sit at the table inside of my board meeting every month tell me that the acuity of these cases as a result of those legislative changes have gone up. And we've seen that as a direct result on Friday, where we had 13 children who were killed as a result of child abuse and neglect inside of our community last year. It's been fifteen years that I've worked at ChildSafe. The last time we had numbers above 12 was 15 ago. I can't help but believe that's a direct correlation to the change in the legislation that has happened.

We need civic community leaders to step in and lead and help us tackle this issue of child abuse in our community by doing things like this, by taking action, making a proclamation, by coming out and supporting the nonprofit organizations in the community. This is a community issue that we all have to be a part of, and I can't thank the people behind me, standing with me, and the commissioner's court enough for this proclamation. Thank you, guys.

Did judge Diaz come or not? Judge Diaz? Nope. Okay. Let's come forward, accept your proclamation, take a picture. Let's see. I have one for CASA, one for child safe, Randy, and one for child welfare board. Sylvia. Sylvia, there we go. Randy.

Hi. I got cardboard kids. Need they need they need some siblings. There you go. Oh, here we go. Oh, we go. I'm like, woah. Is this the new cardboard kid? Yes. Okay.

Oh, never mind, they got it. Alright.

Yes. Can we get a picture with the cardboard kits guys? Alright. Hold your cardboard kits. Get your cardboard kits.

Can we get a picture? Right there. There we go. All right. The next presentation on behalf of commissioners court recognizing Doctor.

William Gonzaba, Gonzaba Medical Group for the service to patients and families across San Antonio and Bexar County. Commissioner Calvert, you have the floor.

Thank you so much, judge. I want to ask Doctor. Tom Gonzaba to come up. He's representing his father and his family. Al Aguilar also here, with them.

Recently, they were recognized as the top innovators in the country by the federal government. I want you to speak a little bit about that because we're so proud of the way that Gonzalo Medical has served our community, and we have a proclamation in the name by, the authority of the commissioner's court. It reads, whereas doctor William Gonzalo has devoted more than six decades of his life to the service of patients and families across San Antonio and Bexar County. And whereas as founder of Gonzaba Medical Group, Doctor. Gonzaba established a healthcare model grounded in dignity, trust, and the guiding principle of treating patients like family.

And whereas beginning with a neighborhood practice on the South Side, Gonzalo Medical Group has grown into a leading locally owned health care organization while remaining deeply rooted in service to the Southeast and South Side communities. And whereas the opening of the Gonzalo Medical Group Southeast Medical Center at 1130 Goliad Road represents a continued investment in expanding access to quality, affordable health care for families and seniors throughout Precinct 4 and beyond. And whereas the commissioners court of Bexar County recognizes doctor Gonzalez enduring leadership, entrepreneurial spirit, and lifelong commitment to strengthening the health and well-being of our community. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Bexar County Commissioners Court acknowledges the extraordinary service and legacy of doctor Bill Gonzaba and Gonzaba Medical Group. Witness our signatures in civil of office this March 2026.

On a personal note, you know I went to school with your younger brother, Paco, and, I had the blessing of seeing your father, in long service and work, always understanding his dedication, and witnessing it. I think 91, his his mind is as sharp as ever. He's still innovating and providing the vision, from the humble beginnings of the Southeast Woods, if you will Yes. Off of South Cross. We are so proud to recognize the heart, the hard work, and the innovation that you've made. The impact is tremendous on the lives of our people. So thank you. Tom, the floor is yours.

So good morning. Good morning. Good morning, judge Sakai, commissioners. Special thanks to commissioner Calvert, for endorsing this proclamation. So on behalf of doctor Bill Gonzaba, father, founder of Gonzaba Medical Group, I'm honored to accept this, recognition. As you mentioned, it all started over sixty five years ago. It was a one room office on Nogalito Street. It was one man, one vision to provide health care for his community. He's really devoted his whole life's work to providing medical care here in this community. And it's gone from one man to today over a 100 health care providers and over a thousand Gonzalo Medical Group employees.

And as you mentioned, at 91, he's still very engaged. He still walks the clinic halls every single day to make sure that we live up to the commitment he's made. So it is really both my privilege and responsibility that we have to carry this legacy forward. Now you mentioned innovation, and you look at healthcare today, it's truly technology driven, data driven, innovative driven, but the secret is never lose focus of the patient. It has to be patient centered, patient care, and this really goes back to our little line, como familia, and that's just become the culture of who we are, is always trying to do the right thing for patients. So thank you.

Alright. Last but not least, we'll do ceremony f, presentation proclamation. We have a commissioner's court recognizing 03/31/2026 as Bexar County Women's Day to commemorate Women's History Month. Yes. Let's give a round of applause supporting the national theme of leading the change, women shaping a sustainable future in support of the Bexar County Small Business and Entrepreneurship Department effort to accelerate women business ownership.

The court will also present the 2026 Bexar County Pioneer Award to our one and only constable, Leticia Vasquez, Bexar County constable precinct number two. Yeah. Let me read the proclamation, Renee. And I understand we have a whole host of people here, Renee, and I'll let you kinda help coordinate this. Proclamation, whereas congress designated the month of March as Women's History Month recognizing that American women of every ethnic background, culture, and class have made historic contributions to the growth and strength of our nation.

And whereas, Bexar County will host a Women's Day celebration supporting the national theme of, quote, leading the change, women shaping a sustainable future, close quote, in support of the Bexar County Small Business and Entrepreneurship Department effort to accelerate women business ownership. And whereas this celebration includes the presentation of the 2026 Bexar County Pioneer Award to Leticia Vasquez, Bexar County constable precinct two for her numerous years involved in the community and law enforcement. And whereas Bexar County commends and continues to recognize previous Pioneer Award recipients for their service. Tracy Wolf, Susan Reed, Sylvia Romo, Alma Lopez, Margaret Montemayor, Carmen Kelsey, Cindy Gabriel, Sharon McCrae, Madonna Minarich, Donna K. McKinney, Susan Parmelot, Renee Green, Francine Wilson, Jacqueline F.

Callanan, Karen H. Pose, Susan Yates, Rosie Spiedlum Gonzalez, Stephanie R. Boyd, Yolanda Huff, Grace M. Uzomba, Rebecca Clay Flores, Trish De Berry, Katherine Brown, Lucy Ada McClark, Andrea Guerrero, and last but not least, Rachel Sakai. Now therefore be resolved that the Bexar County Commissioners Court hereby recognize and proclaim 03/31/2026 as Bexar County Women's Day. Witness our signature and seal of office this March 2026 signed by the members of the court. Renee, you have the floor. Thank you.

Thank you, judge and commissioners. It is indeed our honor to bring this forth as from our department every year, recognizing the women of leaders of courage, integrity, ethics here at Burke County. We started this award twenty five years ago when we didn't have after the fir our last county judge, female, judge Cryer, to help us with this award. When commissioner Clay Flores made history of being elected, We haven't had too many women leaders on the court, but maybe that'll change. We keep getting that conversation about all of the women that you heard their names, whether they were judges, whether they were leaders, whether they were not funded entities such as University Health or the Freeman Coliseum.

We recognize a woman leader who is making a difference at Bear County. These are employees of Bear County, leaders of Bexar County, elected and appointed officials. Today, we are proud to stand to salute our constable from Precinct 2, constable Leticia Vasquez. She joined Bexar County Sheriff's Office on 07/07/1994, where she served over twenty five years as a deputy sheriff. While in the sheriff's office, constable Vasquez served as a detention officer and a DARE instructor in her early years with the department, and then went on to patrol where she served with the SCORE unit.

She She attended San Antonio College in San Antonio, Texas where she received her peace officer's license. She holds a master's peace officer certification among many other certifications. On 10/09/2019, constable Vasquez was sworn in as pre precinct two constable. On 11/20/2020, she was elected and then was reelected in 2024. Since taking office, she and her deputies have given back to the community by hosting annual school supply drives, toy drives, supported many schools, and businesses with law enforcement services.

She also hosts the annual Halloween and Christmas events. Constable Vasquez has partnered with Zapatos Inc, Moonstruck, and other organizations that give back to the community. Please join me in congratulating our 2026 Bexar County Pioneer Award recipient, constable Leticia Vasquez.

Good morning.

Good morning.

And thank you. Good morning, judge and commissioners. I got a lot to say. Leave it to me. Alright. Okay. So good morning. It's it's truly an honor to stand here before you today and be recognized a powerful and meaningful with with this powerful and meaningful proclamation, Leading the Change, Women's Shaping a Substantial Future. The theme is more than just words. It reflects strength, resilience, and leadership of women who are making a lasting impact in our communities every single day.

Today, I am humbled to be included among these women, and I am grateful to the court and to Renee Watson for this recognition. My journey, like she said, began on 07/07/1994 when I joined the sheriff's office. Like many law enforcement, I started at the bottom, at the ground level. As a detention officer, I learned firsthand the importance of discipline, accountability, and compassion. That's one thing that I want to say that I've never given up on is my compassion.

I push that down on my officers to make sure that they understand that. Those early years shaped my understanding of service and responsibility we carry when we wear this badge. As my career progressed, I had the privilege of serving on patrol. And as Renee says, I was in the SCORE unit, the experience that deepened my commitment my commitment to protecting the community while building building trust with the people we serve. I am proud to say that I am the am from the that my roots are here for the West Side Of San Antonio.

I attended Memorial High School, later to San Antonio College, I earned my peace officer's license. Those experiences grounded me in the value of hard work, perseverance, and community values that continue to guide me today. Over the years, I have been blessed to earn my master's peace officer certification and many other certifications, but the greatest lessons have always come from the people I worked alongside and serving in the community. On October 9, I was sworn in as constable for Precinct 2 by that man sitting right there, judge Sakai, who's not paying attention. I'm just kidding.

I know you're busy, judge. On November 20 on November of twenty twentieth, I was honored to be elected by the voters to continue serving this role. The that trust is something that I carry with me very in every single day. As constable, my mission goes beyond enforcement. It is about building relations relationships, strengthening the community, and making sure that men and women who serve alongside me are supported, trained, and ready.

Because when we invest in our people, we create stronger, safer, and substantial futures. It is about showing up for our community, listening to their concerns, and working together to create a safer and stronger neighborhood because leadership is not about a tile. It's about the impact. It's about showing up and when it matters. It's about standing strong when decisions are hard to make. It's about lifting others as you climb. It's about supporting the men and women who serve alongside you and ensure that they have the tools, the training, and the support that they need to succeed. I'm almost done. I promise. When we talk about shaping a substantial future, we are talking about investing in people.

We are talking about mentorship, about creating opportunities for the next generation, about leading by example so that others, especially young women, can see what is possible. As women in leadership, we often carry many roles, but one always remains the same. We lead with heart. We lead with resilience, and we lead with a vision for not just today, but for the future. I am proud to stand alongside so many young women who have made the difference at Bexar County and beyond.

Together, right here, this woman right here needs to be recognized next too. Together, we are breaking barriers, building bridges, and paving the way for those who come after us. And let me be clear, women are just not participating in the future. We are leading it. We are breaking barriers. We are redefining leadership, and we are proving every single day that strength and compassion are not opposites. They are a powerful combination. To every woman watching, like my daughters, especially those from neighborhoods like mine, know this. You do not have to wait for a seat at the table. You can build your own table.

You lead, you speak, and you never have to apologize for taking up that space. I want to take I want to thank my family, my team at Precinct two, and the opportunity for this continued support. None of this could be possible without you. Thank you again to commissioners Court for this incredible honor, and Renee. I am committed to continuing the work service serving with integrity sorry. My tears in my eyes. I can't read no more. And helping lead the change towards a stronger, more substantial future for all. So thank you.

Commissioner Rodriguez.

Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, judge. I'm gonna be much briefer, constable. You did a great job, by the way. Renee, thank you for you and your team for recognizing her work. Coincidentally, constable and I had breakfast yesterday. Yep. Anytime we meet, it tells me a lot about we didn't know each other back, when we I was part of the court when we applied

to thrown into this, you mean?

Yeah. Exactly. When we

And I love you

too. But we've gotten to know each other and the point of our meeting was we always try to touch base on the needs. And what I can tell about your North Star, it's always about the community, number one. And then secondly, you know, when you have an ask of the court or me specifically, it's always about the needs of your team. And so I know you always tell me, don't like politics. You're in politics, constable.

I know.

But I I will say this, your your your heart is not just in law enforcement, and a reminder, our constables are out there on the front lines as well, but you also have a public servant's heart. And so we appreciate your work. I'm sure your your family's very proud. I'm proud that you represent Precinct 2 as our constable, and we look forward to many more years working together. So thank you.

Thank you.

Commissioner Claude Lord.

So even though we're in different precincts, I am grateful for the relationship that we have built as women in office who are able to support each other, and you really brought the integrity back to that position for the for the constable's work in Precinct 2. So thank you for your work. Thank you for your support, and let's keep fighting together.

Yes, ma'am.

Commissioner Moody.

Constable, just wanna say congratulations on the award. Thank you for your long history of service, both in the sheriff's office and now as constable in keeping our community safe. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Commissioner Coward.

Constable, I wanna congratulate you. You you're well deserving of this recognition. You know I love you, and there's nothing you can do about it.

And I love you too.

And, you know, you think about the profession that you work in, which has not always been easy for women to be a leader in. And I I thank you for breaking the mold, if you will, because we are so much better as a community. Thinking about your, ethic of compassion. Because the power that law enforcement has, is a power to change a life, for good or for not as good. And, being able to exercise discretion and good judgment, in sometimes people's darkest hours is a really critical balance that those in the justice system must maintain.

And clearly, you are doing that, and you're you're giving voice to your your teammates that have been a part of the very important work that you do for Bexar County. So Yes, thank you because you you and Renee, you're both part of helping the world understand what a blessing we have when we include women. We we had a society that didn't always do that. Mhmm. But we are a better society economically, socially, and in every way because we let people just live out their dreams. So to continue, breaking the glass barrier, the glass ceiling, thank you for your your great work.

Thank you. And I guess on that note, I I want to add one more thing. Today is the last day of Women's History Month, and I actually I know I can't do much with it right now, but I do wanna recognize my new chief Who is a woman. Oh. If I can have Lupe Garza come up. I will Please come her in today. So hopefully, I can be making history right there by having the first female chief.

Alright. My

new chief. I do wanna say that she brings thirty two years of DPS experience, five years as a chief assistant chief from Dallas County SO, and four years she served four years and eight months as a chief at the sheriff's office. So I will be swearing her in as soon as I can after this and make it official. So here we go. History right here.

And constable

I'm sneaky.

I'm sorry.

I I was listening to you, but I was checking to remind me that I swore you in.

Yes, you did. That's what I said.

So Yes,

you did.

Well, I just was double checking. I was like, So I just wanna say what a pleasure it's been to work with you as constable Precinct two and me as county judge. It's been a wonderful wonderful relationship of

Yes, sir.

Helping understand. You have really been one of the constables that have really advocated for your deputies. I want the deputies to understand that. And I

love you guys.

And you helped explain what they do day in and day out. I know politically that, you know, there are some people that don't necessarily support the constables and and you know, they've never respected the constables, but that was one thing from day one that I wanted to do. You are created by our constitution and and so you are an elected official. You have served well to serve your constituents, to protect the community, the neighborhoods, the schools, the children, the families. You protect your deputies, and it's just an honor and privilege as county judge to recognize you as one of the outstanding women of Bexar County and chief.

Looking forward to working with you for the remainder of the year and to everyone. Now, Renee, you said you have some people sign up to speak. Did and I if they would, I I can give them just an opportunity to

She she just decided to join us.

She's Good.

She won't be speaking.

Alright. Well, I just wanted to recognize those that signed up to speak as citizens to be heard in behalf of constable Vasquez, and let us again give a round of applause for the women of Bexar County. Can you come forward? You

can leave that here. We get on the way up.

And accept. Hey. There's the man.

Have Renee. Yeah. They're

Yeah. We need to squeeze.

Okay. I'll get through. I'll get through. I'm coming. I'm coming.

Okay. It. Very.

Yes. Yes. Take it back downstairs.

Oh, okay.

Yeah. Grab it, please.

Hey. Thank you. I'm gonna call you. I need to talk to you.

One more. One more. One more. One more. One more.

Yes, ma'am.

I keep on knowing where you are. Like, we are in the right places.

How are you? How are you?

You look wonderful. Good to see you. You too.

I wanna do a point of personal privilege. Is Donna Wallace here? Donna, do you wanna come forward? So Donna Wallace is over the Palo Alto nursing program, which is they have their first cohort pending ceremony, so she wanted to come and, just do a a a quick update. Thank you for being here.

Good morning, judge McKay and commissioners. Thank you for giving me a moment, and I'm here to express gratitude on behalf of your generosity. It seems like yesterday I was here, and y'all contributed a scholarship donation for the Palo Alto nursing students. Today, we're only forty one days away from our first pinning ceremony and fifty days away from commencement. But as the students say, who's counting?

So I just wanted to tell y'all every dollar makes a difference. We've ingrained a culture of gratitude with our students and paying it forward. And they're about ready to serve the South Side friends, neighbors, and beyond, and everyone in Bexar County. So I just wanted to give you some feedback on this. What you do every day touches lives, and I wanna say how, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your time and support, and we're making a difference in the South Side.

Thank you.

And especially commissioner Clay Thank

you.

Thank you for coming.

Thank you.

And we brought something for you.

Okay. Great. Thanks so much. I appreciate it.

Alright. Let's go to time certain. We're gonna go to time certain, and we'll get back to the, individuals on consent.

Juan, can you help?

Alright. Five a, presentation discussion appropriate action regarding one, the approval of resolution accepting financial assistance for the Texas Water Development Board. And two, authorizing the county judge to execute the grant agreement and any necessary document related to the award with the Texas Water Development Board in an amount not to exceed $1,250,000. Mister Weggeman, miss Shannon, you have the floor.

Thank you, judge. Thank you, commissioners. Yeah. You're right. Subsequent to the deadly and devastating floods of last year and the incredible loss of life, the water development the water development board has made available funding to about 30 counties throughout the state of Texas for the implementation of flood warning sirens.

So we have the resolution accepting financial assistance from the water development board and the associated grant agreement for execution for that amount not to exceed $1,250,000. We have the San Antonio River Authority with us here this morning. The River Authority is our implementation partner for our next generation flood warning system upgrades and implementation, and they will be taking on the task of identifying sites that are suitable for the flood sirens associated with the Senate Bill three funding, and they have a short presentation to kind of update where we are with our progress.

Dirk? Good morning, judge. Good morning, commissioners. Erin Kavasos, who's our engineering manager, and her team is spearheading this effort, is gonna do the talking, which is a good thing. She's far smarter than I am on these two things. But I just wanted to express, my appreciation and the river authorities appreciation for, the court and its ongoing support for these efforts that are so critical to life safety and keeping our community safe. Aaron?

Hey, Derek. Can she box as well as you?

Well,

one of my one of my government affairs folks is fighting Thursday night, judge. So plug to Kai Castillo

You got some training you got some boxes over

at I this fire somebody, you know, maybe to her downfall, but Kai is fighting Thursday night.

Alright. Go Sarah.

Good morning, judge Sakai and commissioners. So as Dave mentioned, the state passed legislation requiring sirens in certain counties of the state and also providing a funding opportunity for that. We feel like it fits in well with the next gen flood warning system. So I will begin with a quick overview of progress on that work, and then lead into the requirements of the Texas Water Development Board and the funding opportunity. So in December, we entered into an interlocal agreement with the county to do the preliminary phase of the next gen warnings system, which included survey of all of the existing high water detection locations, an inventory and records collection of those locations, a risk assessment to help us identify new locations and evaluate and kind of phase in the work for the upgrades, and, some initial the initial phase of our predictive flood enhancements and our outreach campaign.

We briefed each office on our schedule and progress in February, but just to update on that. Of the preliminary work, we're wrapping that up next quarter. We plan to come back in May with our capital plan and the request for the next phase, ILA, to go into design and hopefully implementation in the summer. And we've wrapped up the surveys, we've developed I'm gonna go into some slides that show a little more detail on there it is. So I wanted to show, as we've been doing these surveys and doing some engineering analysis at each location, we've been able to produce the the some maps showing the impacts when the the water rises.

So right now, all we receive is whether they're closed because of high water or open or caution. But what we're developing is a way to see as it goes into action stage, minor, moderate, and major flooding stages, we can say in the area near those gauges, what other roads are being flooded, what homes might be impacted by that rising water, and communicate that with the emergency operations. We've also been working on our plan for upgrading the hardware. And the biggest element I think I would talk about is the road assessment, the risk assessment, where we've identified flood risk across the county outside of the gauge location. So we have the gauge locations, but then there are also I would say we're we're probably covering a tenth of the area that's at risk.

So our project our capital plan will include not only the upgrades where we've been talking about, but also additional gauge locations. And those would be prioritized well, they would be phased by the level of risk. And then the third area we've been focused on is our communications. We have launched a regional version of bear flood. So bearflood.org is still there and will continue to be active.

But we've also launched a regional version that is sariverflood.org. And then all the counties that participate in that regional website will have their own county domain. So for example, Wilson County has wilsonflood.org. This will help drivers as they navigate across the region who may be coming into Bexar County to work. And then we've developed the the outreach campaign.

And I do have a couple of examples of those slides, but there's some additional information that has been distributed that outlines the campaign that's going the plan is to cover billboards, social media, other locations outside of the home that people can see the visuals. And the message is really focused on trying to reach drivers in their brains as they're making that decision whether or not to drive into high water. The research is showing that the threat of the risk to their own personal life is not convincing enough. And some other things have actually had better impacts, such as the risk to damage to their trucks, or other things in their life that might be really important. So that's being captured in the campaign.

Again, I have a couple of examples of what it looks like, and then there's additional information in the handouts. The plan is to launch this in May. Texas has declared May 18 through the twenty second as flood awareness week for Texas. And we're proposing May 19 to be a Bexar County Focused Flood Awareness Day. So the first example would be on a pump, a gas pump, saying floods don't care about the size of your truck.

And then the second example I have is one of the billboards that floods don't care who's in the car. And there are some other versions that are in the handouts and the different means of communicating that. So transitioning to the sirens. The Senate Bill three legislation mandates sirens in flash flood prone areas. They have released preliminary maps of the areas.

Bexar County is one of the counties identified, and they identified 800 and almost 900 stream miles of flash flood prone area. That's around 36% of the total flooded area in the flood plain in Bexar County. So they require sirens. They've offered up to well, it's $1,000,000. It's allocated to Bexar County.

It can go up to $1,250,000 with an extra level of approval. But then they do have additional funding that they haven't determined how it will be allocated. So as we're putting together the plan for this project, we intend to submit the full cost of sirens for the whole flash flood prone area that they've identified, 1,250,000 will not be enough. So we'll be phasing in what we can with the 1,250,000. This graphic is showing the flood warning system.

And I just wanted to show the sirens would be kind of like one of the gauges, except that it's a two way communication where the gauge network would inform when those sirens would alarm. The Texas Water Development Board published the requirements, and it's very specific. All the details that have to be sorted through. So we will be working through those requirements. The big one that's impacting the budget estimate we put together is the need for redundant communications and power.

Most of the system right now just has single there are some locations that have solar power and hardwired power. But most of them have a single source of power and a single source of communication. So we would want to have the key gauges that trigger the sirens to also have that redundant communications and power. This work would be in phases where we would initiate the site selection and access feasibility before going into the design and installation. And we would want to sync up the design and installation with the rest of NextGen.

The plan with the Texas Water Development Board, at this time, we were just looking for authorization for the county to enter into that agreement. But then the project plan itself would go into the details. That's not due until December. We wanted to submit it well before December, but that's just to give a sense of the timeline. And then the installation would have to be completed by August, like final invoices submitted to Texas Water Development Board, August 2027.

The process for selecting sites is so the flash flood prone areas have been identified. They're provisional. We're able to submit requests for revision, but the sirens have to be placed within those areas. And then we are assessing the risk of where the public is exposed to this risk. The highest risk areas are where people are outdoors overnight.

So we're looking at RV parks, campgrounds, overnight camps, and those sort of things as the first phase. We developed a planning level budget. Again, when we look at meeting the state requirement to siren the whole area, this budget will not be enough. But for this first phase, we put together a design phase budget and the installation phase budget, aiming for kind of five to 10 sirens. But as we get into the details of what that means and how we connect power and all of that, we'll have a better sense of the budget.

Trying to think if there are any but if there are any questions.

I have a question. Oh.

Oh. Are you kidding? Yes. Okay. Let me go with commissioner Mooney, then we'll go to commissioner Calvert, then we'll go to mister Clifford. Mister Cap Mooney.

Glad Well, we're having this. This this is great to see. I guess since we sat down and and met with some folks with the technology around the sirens, I guess that is part of the state funding grant piece of our broader investment. Is that correct?

Yes. The sirens is the state funded part of the investments.

Okay. And then just in a broader sense, the 20,000,000 that was approved and appropriated, this is another subset of that amount, or is this an addition to that amount, this grant?

It would need to be an addition. It's completely new scope of work.

Okay.

And then your one graph, not graph, your slide that showed the city of San Antonio and Bexar County. So is the city of San Antonio applying for this grant as well so we can potentially get two bites at the apple?

The funding is allocated per county.

Okay.

And that would just include all of the municipalities together with the county.

Okay. And then last thing I'll just say, I I love the the ads copy that you have here. I think it's powerful. It's emotional. You know, it kind of gives you something else to to think about besides just talking about the six inches of water and, you know what it takes. The physics of it versus the emotional argument. I don't know what the timeline will be for that, but I also saw you you mentioned posters, you mentioned yard signs and everything. I would love to make sure we get that to the court so we can help disseminate it, bring it to our satellite offices, share it at clubs and groups around the community. So

I'll at

least speak for Precinct three. We'd love to help you distribute that and get it out more broadly if if you can get it to us.

Sure. Thank you for the support. Yes.

Thank you. Thank you. So the county has traditionally focused its flood efforts on where people have died, And I recognize the tragedy of campgrounds that have precipitated some of these fundings, but that wouldn't necessarily constitute what happened around Parambaito Road or on FM 1518 and a number of other places where we've had fatalities. Our flood control efforts between 2007 and 2017 led to basically no no deaths up until recently. So I think that we need to take a look at where we've had flooding deaths since about '20 let's just say 2017 to be on the safe side, even though I don't think we had any deaths until around 2021 or something of that nature.

Thoughts about that?

Yes. Recognizing that the flood related deaths in Bexar County are not necessarily from campgrounds. They're more related to the road. So that's the primary focus of the next gen flood warning system program. And so the sirens is targeted at a different demographic. And we're responding to the requirement from the state to handle that and also to prevent future risk in those areas. Just because it hasn't happened doesn't mean it won't without necessary precautions.

I mean, could could it be extended to I mean, excuse me, to park locations? Because some of these areas Yes. Are around parks, and it might just allow us into some of these intersections where we've had you know, you take the Parambaio Intersection, for example. When I was, I think, in '98, it also flooded terribly, which led to our first iteration of renovations. And then now we're having to do another set, and it's adjacent to a city park. So that would allow you to kind of get some sirens in that area. Do you do you anticipate that that intersection where we had so many deaths will get covered?

So parks are identified as areas in the flash flood prone well, flash flood prone areas by the state and would be considered for a phase of the sirens. Sirens haven't been very, haven't worked well with drivers, and that's where we we run into a we would like to take a different approach with to reach the drivers with the flashing lights and the gates and everything that's included in the next gen flood warning system. The state right now is requiring the money go towards sirens, but we are trying to see if there are ways to revise the language to allow for other mitigation options that we can use for the air the the drivers.

So just, gaming this out a little further, I have seen some of these high water areas actually engulf the bar and the lights. So it may be that a sound option option might be the only thing that actually exists when there is a major flood. So I I would say that, you know, a comb a combination in some places may not be a bad idea because some of the some of the bars have literally been washed away and ripped out like a candy wrapper, to be honest with you. They didn't survive some of the some of the flood waters that have hit us. So, again, any way we can get as creative as possible in some of our high or areas where we've had death, you know, that I think will put the community at peace.

So we'd like to work with you on your selection in our precinct and make sure that some of these areas are are covered. You.

Happy to. Yes.

Let me let me let

me say one last thing about the the media campaign. It's it's a good campaign, but I think when we look at, you know, where some of these deaths occur, we we need to be very micro targeted on the the things that those areas read. So for example, in some of my rural areas, they don't read the express news. They don't read the San Antonio report. They read the Wilson County news.

That's actually an entity that covers their area better than most of the of the entities. And so I I just think we ought to look to micro target in some of these communities where we've had these very high waters and make sure that their media institutions, whether it's a KDA or it's a Leprinsa or whatever, also get covered.

No. We agree, commissioner. I mean, we are a regional entity, and our jurisdiction goes through Wilson, Karnes, and Goliad. So we have very different communities and demographics that we serve. And so with existing messaging, regardless of the topic, we always tailor to the needs. Know, we talk about trash, for example, in Bexar County, which is litter that people throw on the ground, whereas as we go downstream, it's more dumping. You know? So that's just an example of how we target and how we support the communities based on their specific needs and what, what they deal with.

Commissioner Claypool?

So I noticed on the slides, so the billboards as well as the little diagram, of course, your logo is there, of course, Bexar County. And the city of San Antonio, I'm questioning why the city of San Antonio logo is there because I know David Smith initially came up with this flood program. We allocated funding. They chose not to. Is that my understanding, David? And so now we're getting funding from the state, which is wonderful. So hopefully, we can put that funding elsewhere. So I just wanna understand having their logo.

I mean, the reality is, commissioner, the city has, you know, over half of the gauges as part of the Bexar County network that we are in the process of taking over, and it is a joint EOC between the city and the county, so the messaging goes out through those as well. We fully acknowledge that Bexar County has been the funding partner for this effort, along with internal river authority funds, plus hopefully state funds as well. But, the city remains a partner, but obviously not in the same way that the county is.

So is there any work that you all can do to try and get some funding so that we can make sure that we have everything we need for this?

I mean, we continue to look for funding not only from the city, but from, you know, multiple sources wherever that may be.

Yeah. Definitely multiple sources, but I I just believe in getting giving credit to where credit is due. Right? And often time, the county I've talked to several of our department directors about this. Oftentimes, the the county gives funding and we're not acknowledged. And so I just wanna make sure that we are acknowledging and giving credit to where credit is due.

Absolutely.

Okay. Thank you.

Thank you, judge. Just just briefly, I wanna try and understand a little bit better the timeline. I know there's the design, the planning, but when, I guess bottom line for our community, when do we expect these, next gen warning systems to be fully operational deployed in our community? Can you give us a rough, timeline for that?

We've been working with a twenty four month schedule and aiming to end by the end of fiscal year twenty seven. So September 2027 to be complete.

September '27. So Yes. Okay. About eighteen months or so from now. Yeah. Roughly. Okay. Because I know, I guess short of the, I guess the full system, the automated system, are there areas where you're doing some, I guess, some short term improvement to those systems in kind of an intermediate plan? Because I mean, the floods are not going to wait, right, till 2027. So are there some areas where you're already implementing maybe not the full scope, but just partial improvement?

The early wins we've been trying to hit are on the informational side for us and communicating with the Office of Emergency Management.

Okay.

With those flood impacts and understanding, we can now see as the water rises, like what other impacts there are other than just closing the roads. And we're trying to get, we're very close to having the upstream to downstream alerting so that when it starts, the water starts to rise upstream, it and it moves downstream, we can communicate out, hey, watch out. Leon Creek is rising. We may need to close the access road to Highway 90 or something along those lines. We should be able to start deploying that this summer.

Okay. I appreciate your work on this. Derek, thank you for you and your team. You know, I think the other comment I'll make more directed to David and staff, not really looking for answers today, but I think, you know, at some point the court will have to have a discussion, I believe, about infrastructure and flood control improvements, much like the court did back in the mid two thousands. I know those are, know, that one was I think a $500,000,000 program.

I understand we've got ways to figure out how to pay for that, but I think that when I go out to the community, this the warning system's great and I think it's gonna help save property, more importantly, save lives. But I do think our core responsibility in flood control is we have to address the continued flooding and we're only going to do that if we have some significant investment in infrastructure improvement. So I would just throw that out there, judge. I know that's not agendized today, but it's part of this discussion. Again, it's probably down the road. Maybe we talk about it during budget, how we plan that out for the next couple of years. But I just wanted to mention that because I think folks in our community are expecting that as well. Thank you, judge.

Commissioner Kempoti. Just a quick comment on the infrastructure piece because I did want to just highlight again that when when I talked about this, and I know talked about it several times, the importance of, like, protecting human life first and and these sorts of early warning systems, the halt system, sirens, whatever. You know, if we spend $20,000,000, that is a lot of money, but I know there's two low water crossings in Precinct 3 that it costs $20,000,000 That's two. Right? And we have hundreds probably.

So my point just being, I think this is the most important investment we can make in terms of trying to protect human life. I'm sure there's ongoing conversations about how we prioritize those infrastructure dollars in addition to this, but I do think this is our best use of that first $20,000,000 I just had one kind of thought comment, and we can take it offline. But when we when you're assessing risk, you talked about overnight, you talked about locations and stuff like that, but I would assume that there would be a very different risk between a channelized riverbed that has the potential for flash flooding and the rapid rise of water versus on a flat plane of 50 acres that, yes, it's gonna get wet, but that water's not moving quickly, and it's not gonna rise nearly as fast. Is that part of your assessment too?

Yes.

Okay. For sure.

Thank you. Any other comment

on the flip florist? One final thing. I get is your media team here?

Yes. Monica? So

Woah. It's

for Monica.

We just need to make sure if it's it it needs to be in Spanish, but it needs to be completely in Spanish. So it says floods don't care, and then underneath it says but people aren't gonna notice the bottom part if the floods don't care is in in Spanish. So can y'all just make sure y'all have that? Yes. Our team talk strategy did a lot of research on that, and floods didn't don't care. It didn't really translate well into Spanish. It doesn't. Yeah. But but we still need something in Spanish that's catchy in the big green letters or else they're not gonna read the smaller ones. My my suggestion as a bilingual person who represents many Spanish speaking constituents in Precinct 1. We'll look into it. Thank you.

I have some questions based on the questions I heard. First, to San Antonio River Authority. Help me understand the scope of NextGen just from from a logistics grassroot. It's basically installation of these technology sensors sirens now, And so that is the essence of the project and the scope of the project at this time, and I'm gonna expand out in regards to what other remediation needs to be done in order to I'm trying to do we have we considered all the scope of cost, or is there a possibility you're gonna come back or anybody's gonna come back and go, oh, judge, we need much more in order to effectively implement the technology part? Do you understand my question, Derek?

Yeah. I I believe so, judge. I'll start, and then Aaron can take over. Know, the But next gen is not just, you know, the hardware, if you will, with the lights and the gates. That's the most, obviously the most visible component to it. But the work that Erin and her team have been working on, which is not as visible but as critical, is all of that engineering and modeling that leads to the predictive flood models so we know when something happens two miles upstream, how fast does the water rise downstream at different points, which allows for that alerting to happen and be more proactive versus reactive, and when the water is actually rising at that, you know, gauge. So it's a combination of of all of those things.

Do you understand my question?

I think so. Okay. So and I would just say when we looked at the risk the flood road risk across the county, it's in the thousands. It's more than hundreds. So we are not at some point, we as a collective, we need to accept that we cannot sensor everywhere. We cannot put warnings everywhere. We're really relying on the modeling and the other technologies to like, where we have sensors inform the rest of it, and then our team monitoring and communicating with emergency operations and public works. So Because

our since you heard from commissioner Calvert, he's wanting to have some discussion about where certain locations should be identified. And so is that gonna be a work in progress? Or basically and I'm gonna be real blunt. Or each commissioner gonna be calling you saying, hey, I want this area. I want that neighborhood.

Or are we gonna rely on the engineering and the science with the limitations that we have? I hope the court understands where I'm going with this. Otherwise, this thing can get much much more expensive and this isn't and it'd be nice for the city of San Antonio to help, and I'll just leave it at that. And I'll let the rest of the court figure out how we can deal with that in the future. Because to the end of the year, I'll be saying, hey, how much more can we do?

So that's where I'm really focusing on is are we gonna be able to really have an effective coverage or judge, we really we probably could do we could expand this in the future. And what is gonna be the future cost? Or is there gonna be another piece, another phase to this if we're truly gonna make an effective next gen activation center. Because we've kind of put it out of this is gonna really fix things. And I'm and now with the questions I've heard, are we just gonna start the process and then we're gonna have to relook at it in different phases?

That's the I'm just trying to help the court understand we may have and then we're gonna I'm gonna go today as to flood control and what what monies need to be done with that. So finish that. Finish my line of questions.

We are recommending the solutions based on the engineering analysis, the risk analysis. And within the funding that is allocated, what we have mapped out so far does cover the extreme high and moderate risk locations. Some of the lower risk locations are probably not going to get upgrades with the current funding. I think it will be a matter of prioritizing how the county wants to spend funding. There's an infinite amount of need. I don't know if you want to add anything.

I was just going to say, I mean, you can never eliminate risk. I think that is probably one of the biggest messages to come from not just this, but any flood management, any flood mitigation effort. The county, any player can continue to throw time and resources at something, and maybe eventually you will get there. But it is very hard, and it will become very expensive. And so it's a matter of how do you manage the risk, and you focus on the highest risk areas, and you work to mitigate those.

You know, I think this will go a long way, like Aaron said, when you're dealing with moderate and above in terms of the levels of risk areas, that is significant. That is really, really significant to be able to focus on those areas and hopefully take those out of the equation, and then some of the lower risk areas as well. But flood control is an ongoing effort. You know, not just because of past needs that the county already knows about, because of the flood plans that have gone into effect or been studied, but also just as things change. Weather changes, development changes, and that changes how water flows, the droughts and the cycles that we have.

So it it we don't just say this is not a we're gonna get to August 2027, and then we're done. Like, that work does not stop. Right.

So what impact, if any, does Sarah anticipate on residential neighborhoods in in light of the scope of this work? Do we see I'm just anticipating. Are we gonna get calls from our neighborhood saying, what are these people doing here, and and do we need to anticipate that, or is it gonna be minimal because of the nature of the scope of this project? Do you get my question?

I I mean, I think it will depend on what the needs are at that, you know, at those particular locations. A gauge going in is not a very constructive or construction intensive or disruptive effort. When you start getting into gates, there are obviously more impacts, but not every location needs gates. So as this analysis goes on and, you know, we're developing packages, you know, some cases it's lights, some cases it's gates, you know, camera, etcetera, and there's a standard package. But, yes, in some areas, and that will be working with each of the respective offices, hey, this this is coming. This will be in your area. It would be like any, you know, public works construction project with the appropriate notification to those neighborhoods that are impacted.

Do you see any effect on private property with the installation of this technology? Not at at all.

The gauges, the high water detection locations are in the public right

can't hear you.

Speak to

The high water detection system is all located within the public right of way.

Okay.

Sirens, they're maybe on private campgrounds, and but that would be negotiated with them.

So there's and that that could create some compensation issues. Correct?

Possibly. I don't know.

We'd all I mean, theoretically, yes. But you would hope that you would hope that one of the campground owner, you're talking about an easement and something that, is beneficial to their customers as a, you know, as a potential location. So you would hope that there would not be some sort of Well,

commissioners can certainly do that on behalf of the county. Right? They could work work with our private homeowners or private property owners. Let me ask Dave Dave Wegman, from your perspective of flood control, is this an opportunity to really look at the whole picture or the whole county to determine what next big flood control drainage package needs to be put together? And obviously, that's a later it's gonna be much but is this an opportunity to really sit and figure out what's these low risk, what's these high risk, and what areas do need remediation?

I assume that's the experience from Bytle Creek, isn't it? That there needs to be and obviously, needs to be a lot of repair to that whole area. Correct? So what what are gonna be the future needs? I I want the court to really be anticipate what what what do what do we need to do to kinda always be ahead of the curve, so to speak. Do you understand my question?

Yes, sir. I do. Well, there's a lot of moving parts to that question. I will tell you that we do our capital projects planning every single year. We look at flood control initiatives, transportation initiatives, all of our transportation initiatives that have drainage concerns.

They all have flood control components to them that we spend millions of dollars on specific to Precinct 3 because the commissioner mentioned low water crossings in his precinct. The Bernie Stage Road project, all the improvements that were done within the Leon Creek to get that road out of the floodplain, similar to IH-ten and Old Fredericksburg Road where we just put in a bridge and improve safety there. We're constantly looking and as Derek mentioned, it's a changing environment. As development happens, it changes flow patterns. More rooftops cause additional runoff downstream impacts.

Bexar County staff, City of San Antonio staff, and San Antonio River Authority staff do meet on a regular basis also to identify what they call damage centers, which is what drove the projects that came out of that last $500,000,000 ten year flood control program. They continue to map. They continue to identify areas that require more study and projects. Those are ongoing efforts. We're currently studying flood risk in two areas as part of capital projects right now.

In Precinct 2, we have our Zarr Zamora Creek flood study with one of our engineers. We're doing another one in the Lucas Creek area. So, yes, sir. We're cognizant of where these areas are, and we'll continue to, pick solutions.

Alright. I'm done.

One final comment. I know you guys are working with, office of our county county manager's office. I just wanna make sure as these begin to be installed, if you can work with our PIO to make sure any press releases or press conferences that the county is involved and part of. Thank you.

Anything else? Is there a motion? Approve. Motion by commissioner Calvert for the and we're gonna do one we're gonna separate it. Right? Yeah. On the approval of resolution, second by Commissioner Clay Flores? Second. All right. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstention? Motion carries. Is there a second motion? Second. Motion by Commissioner Calvert, second by Commissioner Rodriguez. Any further discussion? Hearing none.

Oh. Sorry.

I I No. It's just that apparently, said the second before I I I heard you spoke louder, I guess. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Alright. Thank you for the presentation.

Thank you, judge. Thank you

for Let's go back, Kate, to individual

Judge, while you're doing that, I just wanna recognize Jamie Manglesdorf, who's here. If you can wave from UT Health San Antonio with the new merger, she does a lot of work with government relations and was very instrumental in helping us with all of our events for colon cancer awareness month. So thank you for being here with us all morning.

Alright. Commissioner Rodriguez, you have

a point of personal privilege? Just briefly, judge. I wanted to we already passed this item, but on consent item 70 was part of some work that the county did with congressman Castro's office for an earmark radio replacement. So I just want to acknowledge, first of all, the work of our county staff and also thank congressman Castro's office and and Joaquin in particular for submitting that on our behalf. It's gonna go a long way in upgrading technology for our emergency communications program.

Thank you, judge. Alright. Kate is the first one on individual 48 pulled by commissioner Rodriguez?

Yes, sir.

Alright. 48, approval execution of first amendment to the professional service agreement between Bexar County, San Antonio Lifetime Recovery to continue to provide inpatient, outpatient substance abuse services for adults participating in the alternatives incarceration program, diversion program beginning 02/01/2026 to 04/30/2026. The maximum not to exceed amount to be paid for the service form or provided during the extended term will not exceed the increase of $496,000 while these services go out for solicitation. Commissioner Rodriguez.

Yes, judge. I understand from doctor g that she wanted to delay this. I think my staff went to go find her in the back. Thomas, do you know if Yes. She just wants to do a little bit more work Okay. On the on

the agreement. So we

just wanna take that till the next meeting? Yes, sir.

Is there a motion? Motion delay or to table. Tables. Motion by commissioner Rodriguez, second by commissioner Rodriguez. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries. The next matter for individual is, I believe, 71. Kate? What? 71. 71. Commissioner Clay Flores, you have the floor?

Yeah. I'll talk about seventy one and seventy two together. So these are you know, ever since I've gotten here, I've I've, asked questions of what our lobbyists do. And so I'm gonna go ahead and support this. But for the record, neither one of them are here, I don't believe.

But if you can communicate with them, and I know they've met with my office, so I'm gonna be meeting with them again because I wanna make sure that they're working with our lobby person, Melissa Shannon. I wanna make sure they're working in conjunction with you and what we prioritize as a court. And also, I would like quarterly reports. I'm not I can't speak for the rest of the offices, but I think quarterly reports would be good in terms of work work done or different things coming down the pipeline from the state. So

They they do just FYI for the court. They do turn in a monthly because they we pay them monthly.

Okay.

So we'll beef up that information and then then they can just compile that into a quarterly report.

They turn it into whom?

To my office.

Okay. So then maybe if you can just, I guess, forward that to my staff.

Yes, ma'am.

Thank you very much. Move for approval. Can can I do them both at the same time, Larry? Move for approval of both seventy one and seventy two.

Second. Motion by commissioner Clay Forrest, second by commissioner Rodriguez, commissioner Moody. You have a comment, question?

Thank you, judge. Yeah. Just a couple comments. In principle, I've opposed the the taxpayer funded lobbying. Also, I do have some concerns about the redundancy with our government relations team that's that's in house. Right? But I do wanna reinforce what commissioner Clay Flora said. I I think there there should be some kind of reporting to ensure that we're we're maximizing the use of that time and investment going forward. But without going deeper at this point, on principle, I'm I'm gonna go ahead and impose both these these contracts.

Mister Rodriguez?

Yeah. Yeah. Judge, I was not gonna speak on this, but but I feel like I I had to chime in. Just because I I think as as someone that sits on the board of the urban counties, Congress of Urban Counties, I probably see a lot more of this activity than than the rest of the court, and I'll do my part to try and report back. At the state level, having been there, you know, it's hard to to gauge success sometimes on a monthly or quarterly basis. It's more basic. A lot of times, it's the work at the tail end of the session to to either make bad bills less worse for the county helping those kind of die Just

kill them. Yeah. Kill them out.

Right. Through time. And sometimes, look, reality is no one wants their fingerprints on that stuff because they've got to work with offices on both sides of the aisle. So, you know, I'll work with you, Melissa, if there's a way that we can we can somehow communicate that better to the rest of the court. But there's significant value in these you're you know, you you work a pretty efficient operation internally.

And so I think there is a need. I respect Commissioner Moody, you know, not wanting to support this, but I do think there's value in particular as it relates to making sure the county maintains that local control when that has been kind of infringed on over the past few sessions. So I'm happy to support. Thank you, judge.

Alright. Any further comments? Alright. There was was there a motion?

I made the motion.

Okay. All those in favor of the motion, signal by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. Any abstentions? Motion carries. I believe that concludes the consent agenda. Yes. Right. Alright. Item six, filing for the record following legal and measure documents and directing the criminal district attorney's office to take action necessary a through e. Court takes note. Number seven, approval of commissioner court minutes for Tuesday, 03/10/2026. Moved. Motion by commissioner Rodriguez, second by commissioner Calvert. Any of, further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed?

Motion carries. Citizens to be heard. Willie Mae Clay? Yes, sir. We're gonna call you up at this time, miss Clay. Do you need any assistance?

No. I'm coming

to the mic. Okay. We'll wait. So staff, if there's if there's she needs any help, please.

Let's see

now. They're gonna bring you a mic.

You'll bring you the mic? Yes, ma'am.

Okay. There you go.

Alright. Thank you. Alright. Thanks a lot.

You're welcome. Alright.

Good morning.

Good morning.

My name is Willie Mae Clay. I've been here before and I

was I remember your last name.

Willie Mae Clay. When I came last time,

it

was it was last last spring letting you know that that I, as well as other persons with disabilities that use via trans, were appreciative of the fact that the effort and support by this entity to the the problem that we were having where the vans were being turned around in the spring. Well, that was resolved. Okay? But as as a result of the conflict in The Middle East now, as of February 28, The arrangement that has been made with military installations and Beatrans, that arrangement has been lifted because of the conflict in The Middle East. Meaning, since fear is a share right system, anybody that's on that van that's going toward, the military installations, if the person does not have a military ID, then those vans will be turned around.

The vans will be permitted to enter the installations only if the person in that van has a military ID. Now that's an easy fix. So Bia needs to route the van that's going into the military installations only has should have only should have the person with the military ID, then those vans will not be turned around. Now that's gonna require a lot of concentration and effort and deliberation on the part of BIA because it's a shared rights system. And I've I've gone to the BIA board as of last Thursday and I emphasized that the routing department must purposely send only persons in the military installations with ID cards.

Now, if you were to call that via chance number, if you were making a reservation, that 21036220 33625050, you'll hear a recording that's a disclaimer and it's discouraging people from going into military installations. I think that's unfair. Okay? So I'm here to ask that you somehow have your representatives that serve on the VA board stress to the VA staff that they need to modify the way that they are routing those vans into military installations. Only have a person there with a valid military ID card.

Now that's that's behind the Sesame's offense.

Other reason I wanna

thank the the sheriff officials that served during the rodeo during the twelfth and the February 28 because they were very, very helpful, very instrumental in helping persons that were using Be A Chance somehow match those bands with the persons that were using those vans because there were other vehicles in the area and it was so difficult to try to get to individual vans. So I wanna thank the, sheriff officials who not only, did what they were asked to do, but they paid special attention to persons using beer cans. They so they kept that motto of serving and protecting. And I wanna thank them and give them accolades.

Thank you,

miss Clay.

Thank you for letting me

speak to

you today.

You certainly. Donna Wallace? Yes, ma'am. Donna? She already okay. Got it. Alright. Was there anybody else who signed up? That's the only two I have in front of me. Is there anybody else signed up to speak about Citizens to Be Heard? And that concludes Citizens to Be Heard. Now we go to individual. And I and we if we'll get to executive, I'm gonna probably go ahead and call for the lunch. Alright. But let's see let's see how far we go.

Alright. We go to individual agenda. I believe the first one is 87. Presentation and appropriate action regarding a update on design progress of certain projects within facilities management capital program, authorizing facilities management coordinate with purchasing the release of solicitation for the recommended projects as approved by commissioner's court including a, fire marshals OEM training facility, b, courthouse exterior restoration project, c, Cryer Center roof and lock replacement, d, Cryer Center generator replacement, e, adult tension center mechanical piping ceiling repair, f, ADC annex roof replacement rooftop unit and smoke evac pan replacement. And g, medical examiner's office renovation.

Mister Curry.

Thank you, judge. I apologize. When I write these agenda captions, I don't mean to punish you, I promise. They're very long. But, you guys have a PowerPoint presentation in front of you.

As a little bit of background, during a previous budget process, we came to court an outlay that we will be coming back to you on a quarterly basis, letting you know what's going to be on the market, what we're looking at, what's finishing design, so the public can be aware and you guys can see what our capital program and how it's progressing. So this is the second quarter update for this year. The projects that we're completing design in this quarter include the Fire Marshal OEM training facility. This is an expansion to the facility out of Southton Road, gives them a little bit more training capability and a fall over location for those emergency response times. B is the courthouse exterior renovations.

The Pecos red sandstone in this building is great when it's big, large two foot blocks like the exterior walls are built out of this. They get less than They get more and more brittle as they get smaller and smaller. So there are very decorative and and detailed cornice pieces on primary, the the south facade of this building that need to be addressed to make sure that they don't fall or crack or further deteriorate. So that's the first phase of this project. The remainder of the phases will include window restoration, fire escape restoration, and then rebird netting of the facade to make sure that we the outside of the building's taken care of in the next few years.

So we're excited about that one. C is the Cryer Center roof replacement and lock replacement. Again, there's a flat roof portion of that, that's reached its mature age for the roof. And then the locks, we're just upgrading those slightly to a more detention grade lock instead of a commercial grade lock, just for ease of maintenance across all of our, sections. Also at Cryer, we are replacing a generator.

Again, when we replace these generators, you guys have been very kind to give us the funding to do kind of full load generators so we can keep those buildings online and operating during those outages, not just life and safety devices, is typically required by code. So again, this will be the upsizing and increased capacity of that Cryer Center location. E is the adult detention center mechanical piping and ceiling repair. This primarily is the main water distribution lines in the basement of the jail that go up to the main towers of B And C Towers. So again, there that building was, as you know, built forty years ago.

That's a high volume waterline. There are leaks that develop in that line. We're replacing it, and then replacing the ceiling, which has been impacted cosmetically from that those water leaks. F is the second part of the ADC annex roof replacement. You guys were gracious enough to fund the first portion of that ADC annex roof replacement at a previous capital project.

We're gonna design both of those together and do all the roof at one time. So we're excited about this funding being available and ready to release so we can mobilize on that roof one time, get all the mechanical equipment handled one time, and then and then go forward. And the last one, is the medical examiner's office renovation. As you know, we're finalizing the move of the crime lab to the Barlite facility, and as soon as they move out, we wanna be on the heels, creating that office space much needed for the medical examiner. As you know, they have right now currently enough autopsy space, but they don't have enough space for their doctors to do the reports and their official findings on the upper floors of that building.

So that's what that office renovation entails. So our recommendation is not to do every single one of these projects right now, but to do the fire marshal facility, the courthouse exterior renovations, the Cryer Center generator replacements, the Delta Center mechanical piping and sealing repair, and the medical office renovation. We believe the other two projects can wait, three months for when we come back, for release. So we're asking, you to authorize us to move forward with purchasing for solicitations for a through g today?

Move forward per will.

Okay. We have a motion. Second. Is that mister Calvert? Any any, discussion or questions for Dan? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. Thank you, sir.

Item is 88, discussion appropriate action regarding awarding a purchase order to Waukesha Pierce Industries in the amount of 1,200,000. That is Mr. Galloway.

Thank you, commissioner, judge. Here on behalf of Public Works regarding the trade in of the surplus items and the purchase of that grader, I don't know if there is a representative from Public Works, but if you have any questions or concerns, I'll try to address that for you guys.

Okay. It sounds like we have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? That motion carries. Thank you. Mister Galloway. No? Okay. We

still got time. I just gotta let you know I gotta leave. I believe we're gonna go to executive session, some signaling executive session. We're gonna go and start, but I'm gonna have to leave. We

have eighty nine.

Oh, we have 89? But I thought 89 is Is that exact

Okay. 89 and

90 are the remaining I don't if those executives. Okay. So let's go ahead. I'll start, but we're gonna have we'll break, and then I would like to be back, of course.

So we're gonna break

in the middle executive? Yeah. Come back? Yeah.

Or Okay.

We'll do

our best. Okay? So so judge, we'll have to

go back on the record. If you're gonna break, we'll have to come

out of executive, go back on

the record, and then break.

Executive's gonna take a while. Right?

Or we can but I don't know if I I just I don't think the lunch is ready. We could break it down. You can break it down and then come back. Okay. It's up to you.

And then when are you going by?

Yes. I've heard you Well We're we're done. We're we're we gotta go to executive. That's only thing we got left. Well, you wanna I'm having to leave and I wanna be I wanna be those there's some executive that I need to be

Didn't break for lunch.

Let's break for lunch. Courts are recess. Courts are recess. 01:00. 01:00. Thank you, judge. We'll see you.

You wanna be back at home?

Yeah. Alright. Oh. Hi. Oh.

Government code executive session may be discussed and acted upon if appropriate open session. 551071 consultation with attorney for advice regarding a pending or contemplated litigation or settlement offers in the matters of Ramos versus Bexar County, Martinez versus Bexar County, Borges versus Bexar County, and Salazar, Schott versus Bexar County, Bleach as administrative estate versus COSA and Bexar County, the state of Texas versus Bexar County. B, matters in which the duty of the attorney to the government body under Texas disciplinary rules of provincial conduct, state bar. Texas clearly conflicts with chapter five five one of the government code specifically. One, legal issues related to certain requests for services and matters related to the offices made by elected officials, may impact commissioners' court functions, powers, duties, authority, including out of county jail contract and the request for potential procurement of a helicopter by the Bexar County sheriff.

Two, legal issues related to a request for proposal for towing services and previous court direction to proceed to negotiate with Texas Towing. Four, in behalf of the Bexar County Sheriff's Office. Three, legal issues related to the proposed changes Bexar County civil presiding and monitoring court system by the Texas Supreme Court's proposed rule, including staffing and operational changes requested by certain courts based on a rule change that has not yet been formally adopted. Four, legal issues to the Children's Shelters Public Service Agreement and notification by Children's Shelter that the potential purchase of 4040 High Ridge Circle pursuant to the exercise of contractual right contained in agreement. Deliberation regarding real property under five five one zero seven two.

Discussion and consideration of potential pre c three satellite office property purchase renovation project on or near the Salado Creek area and Loop 1604 West.

Judge, just one minor correction. The Supreme Court did adopt that rule on Friday, this past Friday, so that is one minor correction.