District 7 Councilwoman’s Statement on Second Council Budget Session

Published on August 17, 2023

SAN ANTONIO (August 10, 2023) — Today, the City of San Antonio Proposed Operating and Capital Budget for Fiscal Year 2024 was presented to City Council. District 7 Councilwoman Marina Alderete Gavito released the following statement:

“First, thank you to city staff for gathering this information and incorporating our feedback into this presentation. The residents of District 7 expect their representative to work and collaborate with Council colleagues and various city departments to push for the priorities of our community. Here are the 2024 budget priorities from District 7:

1. Continue to invest in public safety to address the many reasons why residents do not feel safe and secure.
2. Increase funding for Animal Care Services to address our stray dog problem, open a low-cost or free spay/neuter location in District 7, and add more ‘boots on the ground’ in the form of additional field officers to respond to critical calls and bite reports.
3. Expand the housing voucher program for unhoused individuals and families. Invest in programs for young adults who have aged out of the foster-care system, in addition to hiring more full-time, dedicated Homeless Outreach Coordinators to work alongside the City’s abatement team to address and clean up encampments in our district.
4. Invest more in our sidewalk reconstruction budget to not only repair our sidewalks, but to also address streets across the district that don’t have curbs or sidewalks at all. District 7 has the second-largest sidewalk gap in the city at 242 miles of non-existent and unusable sidewalks.
5. Add a data scientist position to look into the trends and insights in data available via 311 to allow us – as a city – to form a smarter strategy on where city services should be deployed, in addition to making improvements to the way 311 responds to constituents regarding closing their case. 
6. I share the sentiment of my colleagues to increase Councilmembers’ print and postage budget to facilitate more accessible and effective communication through printed items, such as physical newsletters, for our constituents who do not have access to reliable internet.

As City Council works to finalize the budget, the District 7 Council Office remains committed to listening to residents’ priorities and looks forward to District 7’s City Budget Town Hall on Thursday, August 17 at 6:30 p.m. at the Doris Griffin Senior Center.”