FutureFirst SA will focus on offering five key, interrelated policy areas which we believe are essential for the city’s long-term success and well-being.
Our hope is that our research would either confirm or alter our assumptions to arrive at a final list. Here are our suggested areas for policy development:
Human Safety & Security
Make human safety and security a top priority for every individual to ensure their well-being.
Governance
Demand quality, unity, fiscal responsibility and transparency of government is a strategic imperative for our city’s future.
Infrastructure
Facilitate world class urban infrastructure development with a vision for sustainability and prosperity.
Economic Development & Diversification
Recognizing San Antonio’s unique position in the global market, we will promote economic development and diversification.
Education
To foster educational excellence and equity across our community, it is imperative to craft targeted solutions that improve educational outcomes.
Make Human Safety & Security a Top Priority
Human safety embodies a holistic approach to protecting citizens across all facets of life, ensuring their well-being and security from physical, psychological, and environmental risks. Together, these elements form a comprehensive framework aimed at promoting a safe, healthy, and fulfilling life for every individual, highlighting the interconnectedness of various aspects of safety in achieving overall well-being.
Our Human Safety & Security Model Involves:
Physical Security – Sheltering, safeguarding against crime, accidents, and injuries.
Health Safety – Preventing diseases and ensuring access to quality healthcare.
Nutritional Safety – Providing ample access to safe and nutritious food.
Educational Security – Establishing robust and safe learning environments.
Environmental Safety – Protecting against pollution and natural disasters.
Psychological Safety – Focuses on creating public spaces where individuals feel valued and supported.
Key Area: Law Enforcement
We will focus on strengthening law and order with a community focus. We will develop policy prescriptions designed to enhance public safety in San Antonio by ensuring we have a well-funded and accountable law enforcement and fire protection presence.
Key Area: Public Health and Well-Being
Public health initiatives will be a cornerstone of our Human Safety initiative, with a focus on policy that addresses healthcare disparities, mental health issues, and ensuring access to quality healthcare for all residents, particularly in underserved communities.
Key Area: Vulnerable Communities
It is also vital to enhance city services and establish a firm support network for our most vulnerable members of our community such as our disabled citizens, people experiencing homelessness, veterans, single parents, victims of domestic violence, and seniors. Enhancing city services and support networks not only helps the individual recipients but also strengthens our community by fostering a supportive, inclusive environment where all members feel valued and able to contribute to society.
Demand Quality, Unity, Fiscal Responsibility and Transparency of Government
Ensuring we maintain a culture of excellence in municipal government is a strategic imperative for our city’s future. Qualified city leadership and exceptional city governance are imperatives that are not negotiable. We believe that quality governance requires unified city leadership where a qualified mayor collaborates effectively with City Council and city management on one unified set of priorities towards the greater good.
Our policy prescriptions in this area will prioritize modeling a trait profile of the ideal mayor of the future. We will also focus on shaping policy for creating efficiencies in city operations in order to streamline processes, reduce costs, improve customer service, leverage technology for better citizen services, and ensure transparency and accountability in every department of the City of San Antonio.
Facilitate World Class Urban Infrastructure Development with a Vision for Sustainability and Prosperity
We will develop policy prescriptions that promote and incentivize sustainable and efficient urban development while respecting San Antonio’s identity, historical sites, cultural heritage, and natural beauty. This includes policy for pressing issues such as improving roads, upgrading traffic management systems, funding public transportation, protecting our utilities, promoting green spaces, and opening the door to affordable housing, among others.
Key Area: Commercial, Industrial, and Affordable Residential Development
Of particular importance will be creating policy for facilitating sustainable and efficient urban development that supports economic growth and promotes housing affordability. This includes rethinking the city’s relationship with the investment and development community to allow for more meaningful dynamics that will encourage responsible and unimpeded real estate development and growth.
Key Area: Utilities
Given the extreme significance of CPS Energy and the San Antonio Water System to our City, we will develop policy prescriptions to ensure that our public utilities have the focus, funding, leadership expertise, and community support to provide us affordable, reliable, and ample public utility services.
Promote Economic Development and Diversification
Recognizing San Antonio’s unique position in the global marketplace, we will work towards developing policy prescriptions for strengthening and diversifying our economy, removing impediments to progress, and rebuilding our core industry sectors. We will develop sound solutions to attract, retain and expand investment, foster innovation, support small and family-owned businesses, boost the tech sector, and promote international trade.
Key Area: Workforce Development
Workforce development policy recommendations will align skills training with specific labor market needs through partnerships among government, businesses, and educational institutions.
Emphasizing technology and inclusivity, these policies will focus on upskilling, leveraging technology for education, and ensuring educational access for all citizens. Success will be measured through program outcomes evaluations, ensuring efforts support broader economic and community development goals.
Key Area: Military Affairs
A top priority for economic development will be to create policy that will allow us to continue to strengthen, grow, and protect our military missions. San Antonio’s reputation as “Military City USA” underscores the profound significance of fostering strong relationships with local military installations, personnel, and suppliers.
The city’s bond with the military is not just historical or symbolic; it’s a vital part of our social and economic fabric. We will develop policy prescriptions for strengthening ties with the military that will ensure mutual support, economic benefits, and a shared commitment to community and national security.
Improve Educational Outcomes
To foster educational excellence and equity across our community, it is imperative that we craft targeted solutions that enhance the quality of education by focusing on supporting initiatives that improve education leadership, teacher effectiveness and student outcomes.
Our policy prescriptions will prioritize strengthening public education by addressing the specific needs of parents, students, educators, and employers. By meticulously addressing diverse needs and enforcing accountability at all levels, we can achieve substantial improvements in educational outcomes for all students.
Objective #1: Sound Leadership
In order to achieve the level of success we seek for our city; we first need to ensure that we have the right and proper leadership in place at City Hall. Considering the rising complexity of the job of mayor specifically, and municipal government in general, we need to establish our own objective guidelines for qualifying mayoral candidates.
This will allow us to identify with those future candidates who ultimately show themselves to be objectively qualified for the job. Our belief is that any mayoral candidate would embrace this approach given that it will provide the certainty to San Antonio voters need about their candidates by ensuring they possess the acumen and wherewithal to govern effectively under any circumstance that might present itself to the next mayor of the 7th largest city in the US.
Objective #2: Unified Policy Development
Just as important as having the properly qualified leadership in place, policy development stands out simply because San Antonio needs a unified plan of policy priorities going into the future. We need to understand what matters the most to our community and what doesn’t matter right now when establishing and prioritizing our priorities as a city.
We convene experts to help guide the research and analysis of policy priorities. The obligation of future-proofing San Antonio for posterity rests on us. It is the obligation of our entire community to define a unified path forward and settle on top policy priorities to champion together. Our entire community is responsible for laying out the vision and priorities for our city, not the individual candidates through their paid consultants and slick polling.
Dr. Varun Rai is a distinguished public policy expert who is leading the organization’s policy research and guiding FutureFirst SA’s mission of driving impactful public policy initiatives for San Antonio. Dr. Rai brings a wealth of experience from his ongoing faculty role at the University of Texas at Austin, where he has held several prestigious roles including Associate Dean for Research at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and Director of the University of Texas Energy Institute. Dr. Rai holds a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University and has been deeply involved in extensive research on energy innovation and climate policy.
In his role, Dr. Rai also helps to lead initiatives aimed at developing sustainable energy policies that not only address today’s environmental issues but also prepare CPS Energy for future challenges. His work particularly focuses on leveraging his vast knowledge in solar energy advancements and storage technology adoption to foster sustainable growth and innovation for San Antonio’s city owned electric utility.
