126. Mayor Ron Nirenberg on 8 Years of Progress—and What Comes Next for San Antonio

Bob Rivard [00:00:02]:
Welcome to Big City Small Town, the weekly podcast all about San Antonio and the people who make it go and grow. I'm your host, Bob Rivard. Our guest this week is Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who's days away from completing his eight year term in office, the first mayor to do so in the era of term limits, and the first mayor to serve eight years since Mayor Henry Cisneros did so from 1981 to 1989. It's going to be hard to sum up eight years as mayor and four years before that as District 8 city councilman in the space of 45 minutes, but let's try. I want to remind our audience of Ron Nirenberg's most singular moments and achievements in the course of his eight years leading the city. The city's Pre K for SA program was reauthorized for a second eight years by voters in 2020, dedicating a 18 cent sales tax to fund its expansion, which enabled educators to expand the program to start enrolling three year olds for the first time in 2022. And in the course of redeploying sales tax revenues to early childhood education and the city's first bus rapid transit corridor, Mayor Nirenberg also sought and won approval for the $200 million ready to work program launched on his watch. Mayor Nirenberg moved protection to the Edwards Aquifer recharge zone into the city budget as an annual line item.

Bob Rivard [00:01:22]:
In total now, San Antonio voters have protected more than 180,000 acres that otherwise would have been redeveloped to the detriment of the region's main water source, not to mention downstream flooding. And in 2022, voters approved a record $1.2 billion bond for the first time, dedicating $150 million, more than 10% of that bond to housing, affordable housing. As San Antonio and virtually every city in the nation found itself amid a housing crisis, Mayor Nirenberg also led with compassion for the hundreds of thousands of immigrants and asylum seekers who were first sent to San Antonio, first during the first Trump administration and then the Biden administration. People who had been incarcerated along the border by federal authorities found themselves welcomed and cared for in San Antonio as they sought to reunite with family and friends elsewhere in the country. San Antonio was a way station in their travels, but one where they were treated very differently. That's important to remember, I believe, as we now witness the mass detentions and deportations of immigrants and asylum seekers, with many sent to countries with autocratic governments where the rule of law is weak at best, we want to get the mayor's assessment of all these programs and initiatives, but first let me point to what I believe will be central to his legacy, and that's how he led the city, along with Bexar County Judge Nelson wolf, through the COVID 19 pandemic, particularly that first year when there were no vaccines, when there was less understanding of how the virus spread, when the world basically shut down. Even as millions died, medical and health workers were pushed to the breaking point here in the city. Tens of thousands were thrown out of work.

Bob Rivard [00:03:07]:
Food insecurity increased dramatically. And the mayor and other leaders found themselves often challenged by state and national officeholders who oppose the shutdown, who oppose mandatory vaccines and other public health measures. The pandemic also focused everyone in San Antonio on the city's persistent generational poverty and how difficult that is to address. So it's been a busy and eventful eight years for Mayor Nirenberg. I'll stop now and we'll let the mayor have his word.

Ron Nirenberg [00:03:36]:
Mayor Ron Nirenberg, welcome to big city, small town, and congratulations on 12 years of public service in the city of San Antonio. It's great to be with you and to get started. San Antonio has always been a city where our elected leaders have been widely known by their first names. So can we call you Ron this morning?

Ron Nirenberg [00:03:54]:
I always preferred. It makes the transition less awkward. It has been a busy and eventful eight years, and as I talk to peers around the country and people who have served in this office before, a lot of people recognize that it may have been on one of the most difficult periods of time to serve in any elected office, let alone mayor of a major city. So the opportunity to serve has been a blessing. It has not been without a lot of drama and challenge, but very proud of how San Antonio has worked through those eight years.

Ron Nirenberg [00:04:29]:
You know, if you reflect back on the time when you transition from council to mayor, you could have had no idea. None of us had any idea that we were going to be saddled with this pandemic, which changed everything and completely changed the course of what you and other leaders had to focus on. But even if we look at everything else that I mentioned ahead of time, it's not like you came into the mayor's office with a very concrete five point agenda. Several of those initiatives did grow out of your time on council and your desire to get some things done that you couldn't get done as a, as a single district councilman, but really things the momentum picked up as you went along and when you look back on all those initiatives, it's not like they were all carefully mapped out ahead of time, but now, in fact, we can look back and they did happen.

Ron Nirenberg [00:05:19]:
Yeah. Although there was a considerable amount of planning, some of the things that you mentioned. Actually, most of the things you mentioned were culminating moments of plans that have been put in place years prior to. Certainly housing is one of those things. Transportation, I would argue, even the work that we've done to protect water and land in this region. But all of that stems from really listening to our community, understanding our community's needs, the diversity of challenges that people in our city face. And, you know, from day one, we wanted to establish equity as a guiding principle for the city. How do we ensure that no matter where you are in the city, what your circumstances are, you have the opportunity to thrive? And so from that perspective, I think you can see the root of where we've gone from there.

Ron Nirenberg [00:06:15]:
I always talk about the pandemic being a reckoning, but also a catalyst. It allowed us to re evaluate our priorities and cut away, by necessity, all the extra stuff that was occupying a lot of energy and time in my office and in other offices. And we got serious about the pillars of economic mobility in this city and resiliency in the city. And that's what I think about when I look at the investments in Pre K, the development around a very successful Alamo Promise program, the investments in workforce development, which are unfortunately been the subject of a lot of writing, but not a whole lot of accurate writing, in my opinion, with respect to the changes that are occurring in the city and the real lives that are being improved by it. And then, of course, transportation, which there's been many chances for our city to do, substantial improvements to transportation. Voters finally approved an initiative now that we will experience a paradigm change in the way mobility is functioning around San Antonio.

Ron Nirenberg [00:07:33]:
So let's talk about some of those one at a time. What's been accomplished with the housing bond?

Ron Nirenberg [00:07:40]:
So the housing bond began with a recognition that we had, as Henry Cicero said in 1988, a dire need for a comprehensive housing strategy for the city to ensure affordability. So I put together a housing task force that had five members representing the diversity of expertise and experience in the city. And they developed a framework over the course of the next year, meeting with literally a thousand San Antonians to assemble a community driven, compassionate plan for housing affordability. Ultimately, that led to the Strategic Housing Implementation Plan, which is essentially the business strategy behind executing the framework. And we are in, I believe, year four ahead of schedule. We have now changed policies in some areas, cutaway red tape in other areas, provided financing for housing that's not developed naturally by the market. And we have now seen major progress on ensuring housing supply at every income level in San Antonio, specifically focused on the housing that is not produced naturally by market forces. Overall, there's about 10,000 housing homes that have been built or are under construction, many of them repaired, because it's important for us to preserve the housing stock that we do have for affordability purposes.

Ron Nirenberg [00:09:14]:
And San Antonio is a model city with respect to dealing with the housing crisis that we saw long before it started happening. Every city in the country, perhaps in the world is dealing with some form of housing crisis. And San Antonio had the policies, San Antonio had the framework in place of dealing with that. And through the will of the public and the catalytic experience of the pandemic, we've been able to resource that strategy. And we are now seeing a moment in which housing in San Antonio is more attainable to the average wage than it is in almost any other big city in the country.

Ron Nirenberg [00:09:55]:
And I think it's important to point out that the city's not in the business now of building housing. You're working with both private sector and other public sector partners.

Ron Nirenberg [00:10:03]:
That's right.

Ron Nirenberg [00:10:03]:
To deploy those funds effectively.

Ron Nirenberg [00:10:06]:
So I always say that like it or not, government has a role in facilitating housing development at every income level. And what it looks like at different income levels is different. For instance, at market rate or above, the facilitation of good housing means getting out of the way of private developers to do their work. You know, can we eliminate costs that, that add up substantially before development even occurs through, you know, outdated zoning practices or, you know, unnecessary fees that are added to the cost of development for lower income housing, certainly the deeply affordable housing, even a public housing that's not being produced by the market, we can't just let know, let the market do, do what it does. And it's not, it's not a profitable, b. Profitable business enterprise. And so we have to intervene. We do that through advocating for state low income housing tax credits.

Ron Nirenberg [00:11:12]:
We do that through providing gap financing at the local level. We do that for existing housing by providing opportunities for lower income residents to repair their home so they don't fall into a state of disrepair and, and lose the ability to actually have a safe roof over their head. So we can, we are involved, we have to acknowledge we are involved in every aspect of housing development at every income level. What it looks like is different. And I'm glad that this strategic Housing implementation plan acknowledges that and we have.

Ron Nirenberg [00:11:47]:
Executed has to be a almost multi generational initiative. And I would imagine that the next mayor and council are going to take a hard look at providing even more funding in the 2027 bond and that it'll have to continue to because we still have, as people at Opportunity Home San Antonio can tell us, tens of thousands of people on a waiting list for affordable housing. And as much as I think we've done an incredible job with addressing homeless issues, not just with the Haven for Hope, but the other organizations, it's interesting how in the public's mind, right after public safety and streets, people cite homelessness as something that's a major concern. I, I wonder how you feel. I see a lot of progress on that front, but there's a lot of community frustration still with it.

Ron Nirenberg [00:12:35]:
Well, and speaking of progress, it's also related to housing. I mean, we identified that we have no supply of permanent supportive housing or low barrier housing. And that's part of the strategy, is to ensure there's some units available for people to get off of the street, get into that housing where they can also get rehabilitative services. Homelessness has a lot of root causes, and we're not going to deal with homelessness comprehensively unless we deal with those root causes. It's much safer for us to do that when somebody has a safe roof over their heads. They're much more likely to have a successful outcome if they're in a safe place to stay. So we have actually decreased unsheltered homelessness by over 50% over the last few years by making those units available so there's fewer people on the street even though they're part of a homeless ecosystem and we count them as quote, unquote, homeless. They're not unsheltered, they're not out on the street.

Ron Nirenberg [00:13:36]:
So that situation has improved. At the same time, homelessness has become. And unsheltered homelessness has become a crisis all across the world. It has increased all across the world. Now, I will say this. We're not going to solve the housing affordability issues of this country unless we also look on the other side of the family ledger. We can't just work on building cheap housing or affordable housing. I should say we also have to improve people's wages and get people into gainful careers where they're no longer having to work four jobs at poverty wages to make ends meet.

Ron Nirenberg [00:14:13]:
So housing, our housing strategy only works if it's in concert with a system to improve educational outcomes and Wages, which is the whole goal around our workforce pipeline, including Ready to Work. So I'm happy and we're again lauded nationally that we have adopted a systems approach. It's making a difference. Those needles move very slowly. But to your point, these are generational issues I talked about yesterday during my farewell. I have received some criticism about the fact that my legacy is unfinished. But that's kind of the point. We have to put these systems in place.

Ron Nirenberg [00:14:58]:
There's never going to be a single decision that an elected official makes or that a voter will make that will say, okay, we make that decision, we're good for the rest of our lives. That's not the way it works. We have to be committed to these principles. And I'm very proud during my time as mayor that we have put these initiatives in place. They're being executed, they're showing progress. We just have to stay on track and continue to move in that direction and even better, accelerate the direction.

Ron Nirenberg [00:15:30]:
Let's talk about Ready to Work. I'm one of those writers that have not just looked at that program, but I've actually written about my own experience as a journalist going all the way back to the 70s and the comprehensive Employment and Training act, which was a federal initiative. I don't know that there's anything more difficult in the world, Ron, for a municipal government than than workforce development, retraining programs, taking a body of people that are underpaid, overworked, stressed out in many ways in their life with childcare, transportation, living paycheck to paycheck and trying to upskill them. It's proven to be one of the most inexorable problems that we face in addressing poverty. And I know you came out with great enthusiasm at the beginning of this program. How do you assess it today versus how you looked at it when it was first launched?

Ron Nirenberg [00:16:22]:
So let me say a few things. First one is I agree with you. It's perhaps the most difficult thing for a community to engage in. And the reason is you're engaging with individuals lives. The reason someone would drop out of school or end a training program or, you know, unfortunately, you know, lose a job is because life gets in the way. You know, it's a health event that they can't afford. It's, you know, the fact that they might get evicted because they couldn't afford to rent. It's a child care issue that they can't solve.

Ron Nirenberg [00:17:02]:
So in order for us to get people into a path to a better career, which will make them independently upwardly mobile and no longer Dependent on systems of public serv. Public.

Ron Nirenberg [00:17:16]:
Assistance.

Ron Nirenberg [00:17:17]:
Assistance. Thank you. In order for us to do that, we have to remove those barriers. And for every individual family, every individual that's in the program, it's different. And so we have part of this program and the power of this program are quote, unquote, wraparound services where we have counselors work with individuals to identify what those barriers are and help them overcome them. That's the difficult part of this. The tuition and getting people into the classroom. That's the easy part.

Ron Nirenberg [00:17:44]:
Life is the hard part. So that's why it's difficult. And Ready to Work has been an individualized program. It takes time for each individual to navigate through, but we're doing it. We're doing it at scale. I would also say this is the nature of local government. I don't argue with people that say this is not what cities should be doing. The fact of the matter is, if we don't do it, we're dealing with homelessness, we're dealing with mental health issues, we're dealing with crime, we're dealing with all the other social ills that cost a whole lot more.

Ron Nirenberg [00:18:17]:
And so if we're upstream, dealing with providing a pathway to upward mobility, that will prevent all these other social challenges, that's money well spent. If it's not going to be addressed by other entities, that is the state or federal government. So we are intervening. It is the largest local investment in workforce development in our nation's history. San Antonio voters approved it in 2020 by 77%, meaning that they have faith in their neighbors. But it is difficult. So my assessment of it today is that the bird has taken flight. It started slow.

Ron Nirenberg [00:18:54]:
You know, we had to work out the administrative components of it. There are. For every workforce program that has existed and failed in America, there's a new expert born every day. And so we had to work through some disagreements. How big should the administrative arm of this be? But we're in a place now where there are over 12,000 people. I think roughly 12,000 people have been enrolled. I believe already almost 3,000 people have been. Have completed their training, like, completely through the pipeline.

Ron Nirenberg [00:19:30]:
Close to 2,500 people. Am I getting these numbers right? 2,300 people have been placed in jobs. And so. And we have improved the way we're reporting this data so people can see, okay, a lot of people will say, well, you have 12,000 people enrolled. Only 2,300 people have been placed in jobs. That's a low. That's a low placement rate. Well, People have to get through their training first.

Ron Nirenberg [00:19:55]:
So that's happening. But let me tell you this, Bob. When so we are purposefully going after the folks who this is their last opportunity, this is their last pathway, their last possible hope of breaking out of these cycles of endless low wage jobs that has a negative impact on their children. Statistically less likely to complete their own education, more likely to be living in the same cycle of poverty. The average participant in a San Antonio Ready to work program is a single mom raising children in a household that earns less than $14,500 a year. We're the seventh largest city in the United States. You cannot find a home to rent and pay, pay for your utilities and groceries and transportation, all the other things that you need in life. That doesn't also require us to provide some public assistance just to keep the lights on in the house.

Ron Nirenberg [00:20:49]:
When that participant leaves the program and is placed into a job, on average they're being paid $44,000 a year with benefits. Now that that mom is has a credential, she is upwardly mobile. She's going to get a promotion because she's got a credential that will allow her to build on her career. And oh, by the way, she only has to work one job. She can go back to her children, her children get nurtured. The children now are statistically more likely to gain their own educations and be in gainful careers that are also upwardly mobile. The whole cycle of the economy has changed for that family. And we know that that expands over time, just the children and the grandchildren.

Ron Nirenberg [00:21:33]:
So if we can do that for 100 people, for a thousand people, for 10,000 people, that is true transformation in a community. So I am bullish on the impact that that essay radio work is going to have on this community long term. I will tell you that for those people who are, you know, more of the. Show me what you're doing now, just the 2300 people whose wages have improved triple on average, the impact to economic activity in this city in a single year for those 2,300 people whose wages have improved is $64 million in one year. That's economic activity. We did not over the course of the lifetime of the, the working people that will go through this program and their wages over that lifetime, it's a $17.1 billion economic impact. This program has paid for itself in terms of the economic impact and ROI to the taxpayer. But more than that, for everybody that is concerned about homelessness, is concerned about preventing crime, is concerned about healthcare and improvements to the overall social quality of life in San Antonio.

Ron Nirenberg [00:22:45]:
The money spent in Ready to Work is some of the most valuable dollars that we have to spend to change all those outcomes. And you couple that with Alamo Promise, which is available to every Bexar county high school graduate in the county. In Bexar county, you book in that with a pre K for essay program that's expanded to three year olds. You have all the incredible innovation that's happening under difficult circumstances in K through 12. San Antonio is assembled in the last eight years the most well resourced workforce pipeline in the country. And I say that as a matter of fact we talk about that with peers all across the country. They recognize that for us, recognize us for that and companies recognize that to us about us. JCB moved here because of that workforce pipeline.

Ron Nirenberg [00:23:36]:
They said that explicitly. Standard Arrow told me the same thing. We know the expansions that are happening in the healthcare industry because of the available workforce pipeline and the talent here. So it is changing San Antonio. It's not as easy to point to as a plant opening or an airport expansion, but I have every confidence in the world that it will be these kinds of investments in our human capital that will change the course of San Antonio. And I look forward to my report card being reported in 20 years from now.

Ron Nirenberg [00:24:09]:
Well said. We had Early Matters San Antonio on the podcast recently and you mentioned wraparound services, which is kind of something that all of us began to focus on much more intensely during the pandemic and its importance. And they really believe quality daycare, not just for workingclass people but even middle class people today because of the cost is one of the major challenges ahead. That the affordability of it and just the availability of it, because not everybody is. I think Early Matters feels like we're now reaching about 50% of the three and four year olds in the city, which is impressive after five years. But their goal obviously is to get that other 50% in and yeah, it's a challenge for people.

Ron Nirenberg [00:24:56]:
Yeah, and I agree wholeheartedly. We embarked with Early Matters on assessment of our childcare needs in this community and the capacity that we exist. We have. Currently we're piloting some childcare initiatives through the Ready to Work program. I'm excited that Mayor Ortiz Jones has made this such an important part of her agenda because childcare is probably the biggest barrier for working families in order to get back on a pipeline of upward mobility.

Ron Nirenberg [00:25:33]:
You mentioned jcb, the UK industrial machine manufacturer coming here on the south side over near Toyota. Standard Arrow We've probably, in your time, doubled the number of jobs at Port San Antonio. I think there's about 18,000 smart jobs out there now. What's the mayor's role, in your view, after you've done a lot of global travel, a lot of sister cities work. What's the mayor's role in economic development and trying to compete with cities that have less poverty than us, the Austins and Dallases and Houstons of the world, for those smart jobs where people are either looking to relocate corporately or expand. It's a very competitive world we live in, and we've had a lot of gains, and yet we're. We're still lagging behind some of these other cities.

Ron Nirenberg [00:26:19]:
Well, I will say it's a bit of a challenge to compete with some of those cities who can point to what's happening right now. And our pitch has always been, look what's, look where we're going. You know, you skate to where the puck will be. We talk about the youth of San Antonio. You know, our relatively young age, the fact that we're growing fast, we have great, great quality of life. We have great cost of living. We are putting the investments that will make San Antonio build on those strengths, and we will be the best ROI of any city in the country because of that. And it sounds trite, but I think the role of the mayor in economic development is to be the chief salesman of the city.

Ron Nirenberg [00:26:58]:
So that has been. My approach, is to get out everywhere with everyone and talk about how San Antonio will meet the needs of a business or a family and any course of their pipeline, of their timeline, based on the city that we have committed ourselves to be. If you're trying to sell San Antonio's assets right now, you're doing it the same way we did in the mid-90s, which is cheap land, cheap energy and water, cheap labor. It's. And it's the wrong approach because that's only making it harder and harder for our. Our community to thrive. And it's all. And it's relegating us to a certain, you know, part of the sectors that we're trying to grow.

Ron Nirenberg [00:27:50]:
And it's all. And it's going to contribute to poverty. So we have broken out of that cycle. It's been a challenge, though, because, you know, again, we're selling. We're selling a prototype. We're. We're promoting a prototype of San Antonio that we know we are going to be, but it's. It's not yet where we are.

Ron Nirenberg [00:28:10]:
And I really appreciate and laud the companies. And if I'm a shareholder of a company, I'm going to want to take the company that knows where we're going as opposed to investing just where we are. And so companies like jcb, like Standard Arrow, like Ernst and Young, like, you know, Victory Capital, I mean, there are a tremendous number of businesses, large and small, who have seen and who understand the return on investment that they're. That they are investing in in San Antonio. And that's why we've started to move the needle in terms of corporate relocations and business expansions. I heard from Peter Holt a couple of years ago, probably the best compliment I could get as a chief salesman of Citi, which was when he told me that he no longer talks to his peers about San Antonio being a small mid market. They talk about us being a growth market, which means that in his eyes, he knows where we're going and so do the smart businesses of the world. And that goes for, you know, here in the United States and abroad as well.

Ron Nirenberg [00:29:23]:
I want to change the subject and talk about the importance of compassion and leadership. I think that's especially critical right now. We're seeing a distinct lack of that in Washington and in Austin. Terrible scenes on television of people wearing masks and swinging truncheons in Los Angeles that remind me of my college days in the 60s and 70s.

Ron Nirenberg [00:29:47]:
And.

Ron Nirenberg [00:29:50]:
I think what we did for the immigrants, as I said, and the asylum seekers over the course of both the Republican and Democratic administration were really notable. And while we may not at this juncture be able to influence certain federal policies in the way we would like to, it's important, I think, to remind people that there's alternative forms of leadership that are less coercive and based on militaristic or paramilitary kinds of responses to social situations.

Ron Nirenberg [00:30:21]:
Yeah, well, I'm incredibly proud of San Antonio continuing to be a socially cohesive and compassionate community. On day one of when I entered office, I wanted to make sure that the first document I signed was a Charter for Compassion, which brought us in league with the cities of the United States and the world that recognize that compassion is sort of the root principle of all public policy. You know, treat others the way you want to be treated and don't treat others the way you don't. We are in. In the business of seeing a community's problems and trying to solve them. That's compassion. And so how we respond to these very difficult challenges is, number one, we of course, follow the law, but we also follow a moral law, which means that you Treat everyone, no matter their circumstances, with respect and with dignity. We have stuck to those principles even through difficult political challenges like the immigration and migration challenges of this last several years.

Ron Nirenberg [00:31:31]:
And I always remind people if, and this is true, I believe this, if the mayors and local governments of the country had the authority to fix our immigration system, it would be fixed a long time ago. Maybe a long time ago, but we don't. But we do have an obligation to treat people when they come to our city, with dignity. And so we have, during the course of the migration crisis, maintain public safety. We have maintained order in the process, but we've also treated people with respect, and we will continue to do that.

Ron Nirenberg [00:32:09]:
Do you think going forward that your successor will be able to maintain the independence of the city and, you know, in that realm? And it's just not San Antonio. Of course, it's a concern everywhere. But we're seeing the governor and mayors of California opposing Trump administration responses to how they're handling immigration, but they're finding themselves unable to fight back. In a sense, I believe we will.

Ron Nirenberg [00:32:38]:
And I think, number one, we have the community behind us. It will be more difficult as the days unfold because we have seen Trump 2.0 be the more violent version of Trump 1.0, and we've seen a really cruel governor approach the situation to, you know, put wedges in between people in the community. They are trying to make it difficult for us to respond in a compassionate manner by threatening people with their jobs and, you know, trying to silence local community voices with militaristic tactics. So it's going to be more difficult. The stakes have grown even higher. I think San Antonio responds the way it does because of the fact that we are by nature a compassionate, multicultural community, community that believes that diversity is our strength and people are deserving of respect.

Ron Nirenberg [00:33:53]:
On a completely different subject, at the very beginning of your mayoral term, we passed the 2017 Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. My family's millennial sons say that us boomers are not paying anywhere near enough attention to that issue or making enough progress on it. The mayor, of course, has a ex officio role with both of our municipal utilities, CPs, energy and SAWS. I wonder how you feel about the ability of a mayor and council to positively impact that, given that it's arguably up there with abortion as one of the most divisive, partisan issues of our time. Climate change, that is.

Ron Nirenberg [00:34:35]:
Yeah. Which is crazy. So many of us can be a divisive issue simply because we all breathe the same air. So a few things because San Antonio struggles mightily with socioeconomic inequity. And it's always mitigation of the challenge falls. The burden falls hardest on those who can least afford it. We have to walk a tightrope to making sure our mitigation strategies are affordable or attainable to this community. We have done that.

Ron Nirenberg [00:35:13]:
Keep in mind that when I called for this resolution, we began the process of establishing our first climate action adaptation plan. The city had just opened its a coal plant literally just a few years prior. So you know, we recognize first, we do have a role and the global conversation. We have a local responsibility to make sure that our residents can breathe clean air. And we also have a local challenge to do all those things in a way that doesn't put more of our people out on the street. I'm proud of the fact that we've assembled a process that guides this whole thing through community participation and that we have navigated towards. We have established a plan that gets us to our overall climate goals, which are net neutrality by 2050 in a steady path that maintains affordability in our, in our basic utility. Keep in mind, I also believe that at the very root, the foundation of whether or not the city can sustain itself, can thrive, can be a viable city.

Ron Nirenberg [00:36:26]:
The future is CPS energy. If that utility is not well functioning, is not stable, does not have capacity to serve its customers reliably, nothing else matters. You can add saws in our water supply to that. So we've been able to do that. Our generation plan now is slightly ahead of schedule because of the fact that Rudy and his team have been. Rudy Garza and his team have been aggressive in terms of bringing in new capacity that is lower emissions at a time when we actually don't yet need it. So we have more peaking in reserve capacity that has reduced our emissions. We have been aggressively adding to our solar portfolio.

Ron Nirenberg [00:37:11]:
So San Antonio is number one in solar in Texas and we are number five in the country and climbing that list. We have piloted new technologies and are underway with a pilot in geothermal. We are pursuing small module nuclear reactors to continue to bring down our portfolio. We're doing this all while maintaining our values of affordability, reliability and, you know, responsibility to our environment. It's a very difficult environment. Nobody likes when utility rates have increased. We just came through an almost decade period where they didn't increase at all, I would argue because it's easy politics. But we have gotten on a glide path that has maintained CPS's position as being the most affordable utility in Texas, most affordable one of the most affordable utilities in the country, but also is aggressively investing in itself while demand is on the rise in Texas, significantly on the rise in Texas.

Ron Nirenberg [00:38:17]:
And it's a politically treacherous environment to invest in renewables. The fact that they've navigated that space is a testament to Rudy and his team and to a community that supports them.

Ron Nirenberg [00:38:31]:
Yeah, I think we focus so much on the challenges in our community, but we, we have some of the most reliable, affordable water supply and energy supply in the country, not just the state. And people don't always appreciate the excellence.

Ron Nirenberg [00:38:45]:
Of that, not at all. And the moment CPs and SAWS are top of mind at the kitchen table conversation, things are not going well. So the fact that it is sort of in the background is a real testament again to this community. But I will say back to the chief salesman thing. We're not pitching cheap electricity, cheap water. We're pitching safe, reliable energy and water because we were making the investments necessary to maintain it.

Ron Nirenberg [00:39:18]:
So next Wednesday, this episode will air Friday. Ron, you'll preside over a ceremony we haven't seen for eight years in the city, which is handing the baton to a new mayor and the new council members also taking the oath of office and moving in. I wonder how you feel about how the city conducts elections as you leave. And we, we saw, number one, an election that was very distracted by Fiesta, but also by the 27 names on it. We were in a city where anyone with $100 can get their name and not make any effort at all to campaign or not have any of the bona fides to even be on the ballot. Did you see anything in this particular election that tells you we need to make some additional changes, either in the charter or otherwise?

Ron Nirenberg [00:40:05]:
Well, I've long been an advocate for more participation and I think more participation will come naturally if we move our elections to a November cycle. I've always been an advocate for that. There are costs and benefits, of course, but I think overall it would be a good thing with more participation. I have always agreed with the fact that we need to index the fee for the ballot, but I do think there needs to be a signature requirement as well. In fact, the fee could remain the same if we just added a signature requirement of 100 signatures, say to be on the ballot. I will say I think there has been much made about the fact that there are 27 names on the ballot that I think kind of distracts from other things going on. You know, there's always a group of of also rans that add their name to the ballot that generally aggregate about 5%, 6%. Eighteen names got defied to 6% this year.

Ron Nirenberg [00:41:06]:
So it was really an issue of there were nine competitive candidates with pretty similar messages, including four councilmember five. If you include a former councilman, half.

Ron Nirenberg [00:41:18]:
Of the council wanted your job. Right.

Ron Nirenberg [00:41:20]:
Yeah. And, and to me, one of the things that, that tells me is that people were generally okay with how things were going. Politics, local government was not top of mind. And that's not a bad thing. Just like energy and water, if it's not an active part of the city kitchen conversation, that that means there's general satisfaction with the way things are going. I think that's because the community voted on all the major things were moving forward. So, you know, I, I hope that and I believe that the new administration, the new council will continue to see the community support behind the major efforts towards economic mobility and housing and transportation. Because the votes have been supported so well by the community.

Ron Nirenberg [00:42:16]:
I do think we need to change our ballot access a little bit. But you know, overall, I think that was, it was, it was not the reason for weird election cycle that we had. You know, if you look at the general election also incumbent swept, you know, Sook is back, just took her an extra round. It's a, that's probably the most difficult district to, to campaign in.

Ron Nirenberg [00:42:49]:
Very close the first time.

Ron Nirenberg [00:42:50]:
Yeah. And you know, if you look at the four council members who had, you know, all the same record to run on and pretty similar messages, if you put them all together, they would have led into the runoff. You know, they would have been a leading candidate and they perhaps if it was just one of them, might, they might be mayor elect right now. So, you know, the city is moving in the right direction. I think the new council and mayor will see the wisdom and the community's input on that. And we're going to keep moving forward.

Ron Nirenberg [00:43:20]:
Am I right that we would need legislative approval to move to November or could that be done with a change in the city charter? Because we get, when we get voters to the polls, overwhelming numbers vote on these charter reform amendments or on public safety issues and then we get to a May election and you get 10, 12, 15% of the, of the registered voters voting, far, far fewer than are accustomed to going to the polls in November.

Ron Nirenberg [00:43:46]:
Yeah, there was enabling legislation that was needed, that had been reapproved every single session until I think 2015. Just the time when I had the opportunity to bring it to our community. They let it expire. But just this last session, there was legislation that ironically, Governor Abbott pushed that would require, you know, changes to the election if we made it to uniform November. So I think there's opportunity there. It would be in odd years as opposed to even years. But, you know, in my perspective, people are conditioned, have conditioned themselves to vote in November, less so in May. And I will always believe that more participation is better than less.

Ron Nirenberg [00:44:31]:
Well, we're running out of time, but I want to mention that last night at the Japanese Tea Garden, you had a wonderful farewell event with a number of supporters back. Conservation International and Texas Nature Conservancy are going to build a one acre pollinator garden on your behalf at the Bracken Cave. That's a lot of pollinator garden. And I say that coming from a family that's very pro pollinator garden. The Brackenridge Park Conservancy announced a similar undertaking in our oldest park in the city, was second oldest after San Pedro. And that has to feel good. Your wife, Erica Prosper, who's an HEB executive, gave a very passionate, I would say almost poetic homage to you and your public service. And so I guess we have to conclude the episode with asking where you go from here.

Ron Nirenberg [00:45:26]:
And I know that you've accepted a professor of practice opportunity at Trinity University where you were a graduate and once ran the jazz station before you got into politics. And it's probably unfair to ask what's next because you haven't even exhaled yet, but what do you think is next?

Ron Nirenberg [00:45:44]:
Well, I'm looking forward to teaching the class at Trinity. It's one class, but I'm excited about exploring that nexus between the passion and some would say the activism that happens among young people and idealism and the change making institutional work that needs to happen in order to make, turn ideas into action. And so, you know, I'm interested in exploring that with them and giving them the tools to be actors in this city, not just activists. And so I'm excited about that. That will be intellectually stimulating, I'm sure. And it's always a home. I come back to Trinity. But long term, I'm gonna give myself a week long sabbatical to come down from all of the adrenaline over the last 12 years.

Ron Nirenberg [00:46:36]:
But I don't think I'm done with public service, Bob. I, I have never. So I, I have tried to maintain a focus that wherever I ended up was because I wanted to make an impact and do the work that whatever that position would allow me to do. That's what led me to council. That's what led me to run for mayor. I have fallen in love with public service and this community and the work. And so I think I will continue to pursue an opportunity to make impact. And that may be in politics because a lot of our ills and a lot of the changes that need to be made are in our body politicians.

Ron Nirenberg [00:47:22]:
But it's too early to say yet where I will end up with that. But that's what drives me. I'm not obsessed with being something as much as I am with doing things.

Ron Nirenberg [00:47:33]:
Well, I think I speak for our audience when I say thank you for that public service and thank you for coming on to Big City Small Town.

Ron Nirenberg [00:47:38]:
Appreciate it. It's great to join you. Bob.

Bob Rivard [00:47:43]:
Thanks for joining us for this episode of Big City Small Town. Please share this episode with friends and colleagues and if you, if you haven't already, sign up for Monday Musings, my weekly newsletter. Just go to bigcitysmalltown.com and add your email. Big City Small Town is brought to you by Western Urban Building, the city our children want to call home, and by Geekdom, where startups are born and smart ideas become businesses. Thanks to Corey Ames of Ensemble, Texas for the production of this show. We will see you next.