87. VIA's Jeff Arndt Rides Off

Bob Rivard [00:00:03]:
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. This week's guest is Jeff Arndt, who has served for 13 years as president and CEO of Via Metropolitan Transit, San Antonio and Bear County's public bus system. Jeff is also on the cusp of retirement, and we're gonna be talking both about his long years at Via, what he's accomplished, and what the future holds. Jeff, first, the personal story. What brought you to San Antonio and got you into transit?

Jeff Arndt [00:00:37]:
Oh, that well, that's a very interesting story. I grew up in a small town in Northwestern Indiana, La Porte, Indiana. So small that there were no buses. There was no transit system. I grew up believing I would never leave Indiana. Hardly thought I'd leave La Porte. All my family lived there. We went to the same high school together.

Jeff Arndt [00:00:56]:
But when I graduated from Notre Dame, notice still in Indiana. Right? Great school. Yep. I got a job, and it took me to Los Angeles. So so I went from, like, dink you know, a very small town to Los Angeles, and I was working as a traffic engineer and moved around in that firm. They opened a new office in Houston. Real estate values in Houston when you compare them to California even back then were extraordinarily superior, and so I became a junior traffic engineer in Houston, Texas. We had a contract with Houston Metro, so I kinda started learning about transit.

Jeff Arndt [00:01:30]:
And I think I got drawn to it because, because you are really in touch with your customer. You know who your customer is. So most of what I dealt with up until then was dealing with cars. They may have had people in them for hopefully, they did, but they were cars. Very impersonal. The whole fact that you would you could know the people you were serving and you knew what you were doing for them made it very attractive. So in 1980, I started at Houston Metro. I've been in public transportation since.

Jeff Arndt [00:01:59]:
At one point, a deputy CEO job was created by my predecessor, and I was recruited to San Antonio, out of running a private operation in Houston at that time. I wanted to get back into the public sector, and I was convinced my by my friend who is also a recruiter, if you wanna get back into public transportation and you wanna be near your family, which are now my family is all in Houston, There aren't a lot of of options, and San Antonio is a good good option. So that's what brought me here. Wow. Now I have to add one more thing. Do so. When I was in 1st grade, and people know me I know that, you know, I'm I'm in into theater and in Houston actually participated in community theater at a very low level, but nonetheless. So my very first role in 1st grade, I was the lead in the play in a play, and I played William Travis at the Alamo.

Jeff Arndt [00:02:53]:
So I think I've been fated to live in San Antonio.

Bob Rivard [00:02:57]:
That's a great story. I'm impressed that the, small town school in La Porte decided to put on the battle of the Alamo. Yes. That's incredible. Well, you've spent more probably more than half of your life in Texas then even if you were

Jeff Arndt [00:03:12]:
an Indiana native. No. I've been in Texas for, I was, I think, 22 years old when I moved here.

Bob Rivard [00:03:18]:
Okay. Wow. Well, talk about the via of, let's see, 13 years, 2010 or 11, Jeff, when you arrived. And, of course, you were coming from Houston. So you were in a better finance mass transit system in Houston. And you probably, of course, you knew that coming to San Antonio that the sales tax was not as robust here as it is in other Texas cities. And you and I have talked about that many Yes. Many, many times because that's been a real governor breaking the via system from not growing, more robustly.

Bob Rivard [00:03:54]:
But, you knew what you were coming into. And what was the system like when you came here 13 years ago?

Jeff Arndt [00:04:00]:
I will just tell you because, I've been involved in transit nationally as well. Via always had the reputation of being a very well run bread and butter system, which is what you can run on the kind of financing they have here. So that was the first thing. I this was not a system that was in disarray. And, of course, I wasn't coming in as CEO in any case, but it wasn't one where you're gonna spend a lot of time having to dig out of problems. Right? It was a place where you would have opportunity to help that system hopefully grow. And if if you recall back in 2012, that was when the street car discussion was was going on, and so there was this project there as well. And I think that there's something, internal to me, and I think it's part of why I've stayed in public transportation, which is this kind of embracing of working for the betterment of what I would say underdogs, if you will.

Jeff Arndt [00:04:56]:
Right? People that really have to fight. And if you think of the transit market and the people who ride transit, many of them really have to fight for things that we take for granted. And there's something in me that is just all about helping in those circumstances. Well, to some degree, you could look at Via look at Via and Houston Metro is that, you know, Via was the underdog. Via Via brings in about 75% less money than Houston Metro does to serve the same size area. So that's a big juxtaposition.

Bob Rivard [00:05:27]:
That's shocking. Yes. And and, you know, I came here from New York City back to Texas, Jeff, in 1989, and immediately realized that unlike, New York where the subways and buses were how I got around and buses were how I commuted from Hoboken across the Hudson River in New Jersey to to the city, that this was strictly a system that was being used by the working class and that nobody that I knew where I moved, nobody that I worked with at the San Antonio Light took the bus or knew what bus route they lived on. And, it was a very strange thing for me coming from a mass transit environment to San Antonio. And, how much has that changed over has it changed over the years?

Jeff Arndt [00:06:07]:
I don't think it really has changed appreciably, and I don't think it's all that different in most other systems. Okay. For some reason, transit is almost embarrassed by that. On a national basis, almost embarrassed. Oh, we need to find the quote choice riders. I say by choice, not choice. Choice is a kind of meat. Right? By choice means they're choosing to do it.

Jeff Arndt [00:06:29]:
But I think what we do is is noble and necessary and important. And there's nothing to be embarrassed about the fact that you're helping people who are struggling to, put food on the table sometimes to get to a job. I mean, I think that's extraordinarily important. And as much as I like lattes, I think it's more important that, a person be able to get a barista be able to get to that job than me be able to buy a latte. Right? That's a convenience for me. It's a necessity for them.

Bob Rivard [00:06:59]:
And, you know, as we talked over the years and became friends, it was evident that one of your goals was to really increase ride frequency so that people didn't have to wait at bus stops as long and so that the total amount of time they spent coming to work or going back home was reduced. Right. And that was a major priority for you and it seems to me that you did make some serious headway there.

Jeff Arndt [00:07:22]:
Yeah. We did, so first of all, frequency, I I think frequency is the key to service. And you were in New York, you know how frequent the service was there. And it's almost intuitive. If you said to anyone, if you had a bus that ran by your house once an hour, how likely would you be to take it? Probably not, you know. Well, what about if it ran by your house every 10 minutes? Maybe so. And all the national research says that if a bus runs every 10 minutes, about 85% of people would be willing to consider it. I know there's a lot of other factors, but 85%.

Jeff Arndt [00:07:57]:
When it gets to 30 minutes, that drops, into the 15%. And when it gets beyond 30 minutes, drops to the 5%. So imagine you have a product you're trying to sell that 95% of people say, I have no interest in that product. So how do you how do you sell that product? Unfortunately, the average route in in Via right now is 60 minutes.

Bob Rivard [00:08:19]:
Really? The average route. Part of that reason, Jeff, is because of the footprint that you serve. And as you just mentioned, it's literally equal. You can overlay the San Antonio map on Houston, a city with a population of, what, 3 or 4 x of what what

Jeff Arndt [00:08:33]:
About 3 times.

Bob Rivard [00:08:34]:
Our our metro area has. And it begs the question, are is Via trying to serve a, a footprint that it shouldn't serve and it should it reduce itself to a more urban system rather than just suburbs and would it then, you know, achieve the frequency that it would love to have? That's a

Jeff Arndt [00:08:51]:
great question that comes up on occasion of, well, why don't you just run service inside 410? And if that's all we did, we could run a lot of service. Unfortunately, the people who live even the people who live in 410 wouldn't be able to get to the jobs outside 4 10. And jobs are spread as much as population. Right? So you need that access. So what we've done over I am beginning in 2019 is we've tried to kinda we're creating a system where the core and it I'm I'm just gonna say roughly 410, but not exactly 410. The the core is where we're gonna focus bus service, and then we're gonna be able to, therefore, increase frequency within that core. And then around the core, we're putting in what we call Vealink. I think you know about VIA link, which is kind of an Uber or Lyft like service Right.

Jeff Arndt [00:09:42]:
Within limited geographic areas. Transit, I remember back in the 85, 86 time period, as the suburbs were really growing in in Houston even, that everyone says, well, you know, buses just don't work in the suburbs. The way they're laid out, the street network, the lack of density, and yet every transit system in America put buses out there. It's like, buses don't work, but, hey, the only thing we got is a hammer, so we're gonna pretend it's a nail and bang away at it. Right? The thing was we were right. It doesn't work well. Buses don't serve the suburb. Well, they can't.

Jeff Arndt [00:10:18]:
And technology has has permitted us to put in this more demand response service. So what we've done in some of these areas is we've taken the buses that ran once an hour in just one piece of that area, so it's fairly limited. And we've taken the dollars for that bus service and the buses out and replaced it with this point to point anywhere in the zone, anytime you wanna go. Right? Direct service, which operates quite a bit like Uber or Lyft on an app. You book the trip. You know what vehicle's coming. You know what time you'll arrive. You rate the driver at the end of the trip.

Jeff Arndt [00:10:54]:
By the way, the average, VLINK rider has a rating of 4.8 to 4.9 out of 5. That's

Bob Rivard [00:11:00]:
pretty high. Very high. But, yeah, when you look at our, our distribution of both in terms of, residential and job, centers. You know, to the south, you've got Port San Antonio and Brook City Base. To the northwest, you've got UTSA. You've got the medical center. You've got quite a concentration of corporate jobs with USAA and Valero and NuStar Energy and others out there. And so you can't compress it down to 410.

Bob Rivard [00:11:26]:
Right. You've got the 1604 dilemma. Right? And if I'm not mistaken, I see via buses outside of 1604 in Alamo Ranch and other areas, don't I?

Jeff Arndt [00:11:36]:
Approaching and, 1604 for example. So my granddaughter is a junior at UTSA. She's also, legally blind, so she relies on Via to get around. And she works in the rim, which is quite, you know, not way outside 1604, but more to 1604. She rides the bus to and from UTSA every day and that she's working, obviously. And when she wants to visit me since I live, you know, in, Lavaca, she'll take that same bus to the transit center by my office, and and we pick her up there. So we run, yes, we do run outside of 1604. But for example, at UTSA, there is a via link zone as well that kinda covers that area.

Jeff Arndt [00:12:20]:
I think Alamo Ranch, we don't have much service out there. Ultimately, Alamo Ranch would be a good market for a VIA link type service the way it's developed. So that's really, if you think about it, a core bus service at high frequency and a series of transportation collection areas that both will feed you within your neighborhood and will also connect you to the bus service. So every one of those has a direct connect at least one direct connection point to the mainline bus system. We treat it like a local bus. So the fare for Vealink is a dollar 30 base. A lot of discounts on that base. And if you transfer at that point, it's a free transfer and vice versa as well.

Jeff Arndt [00:12:59]:
The thing I always tell people is we are a lot like Uber and Lyft with one major exception. We are always a dollar 30.

Bob Rivard [00:13:06]:
Can you pay that dollar 30 now with an app?

Jeff Arndt [00:13:09]:
Or Yes. Absolutely.

Bob Rivard [00:13:10]:
You know, a smartphone? How does that work when somebody gets on to the bus and makes eye contact with the driver or whatever instead of putting the coins in the old machine? Yeah.

Jeff Arndt [00:13:20]:
We have an app where where you can buy all kinds of fare media on the app, and you can prepay it within the via link app. In fact, there's a via a separate via link app. We're putting new fare boxes on right now that are going to increase the, kind of fare instruments. Our vision is that you could go into Walgreens in the not very distant future and buy a pass that you use on the bus, just like you can buy a gift card for any number of organizations.

Bob Rivard [00:13:48]:
That makes it easier for not only the passenger but

Jeff Arndt [00:13:50]:
the driver. Totally. Absolutely.

Bob Rivard [00:13:53]:
Before we talk about some innovations and things that are on the drawing board, talk about the importance or maybe not importance of some historic things like park and ride. When did park and ride come about as as a concept in in American transit, and how important is that in San Antonio for I'm sure it's important for things like Spurs games or Fiesta or downtown events like New Year's Eve. But is is it a important day to day for commuters?

Jeff Arndt [00:14:22]:
Well, park and ride concept's been around since I started in transit back in 1980 and probably before that. Right? What Via calls park and ride is often called special event service in other areas. Okay? And it is exactly, Bob, what you described. You you go to cross crossroads and you get on a bus and it takes you back and forth. The second kind of park and ride and one that we had in Houston is the day to day park and ride. And so, in that case, you have the park and rides that are in the further portions of the area, and they pay a premium fare. They pay because they're getting a direct trip into downtown. But what made their park and rides successful is they were all tied to HOV lanes usually starting at that park and ride and maybe even upstream all the way into downtown.

Jeff Arndt [00:15:10]:
So the one thing that we haven't invested in Bexar County in much at all are HOV lanes to make a suburban park and ride very successful. That HOV lane lane is important because it is a selling point. That's how I actually ended up at Houston metro. Because when I moved to Houston, I moved from the Bay Area. And my ex wife and I, we each had un air conditioned cars in Houston, Texas.

Bob Rivard [00:15:37]:
Oh, god.

Jeff Arndt [00:15:38]:
Does that make you laugh?

Bob Rivard [00:15:40]:
I don't think they sell those anymore, Joe.

Jeff Arndt [00:15:44]:
And we would be, you know, on the we would carpool to downtown, and we'd have the windows down on the Stabenowel Freeway, which is just so totally unpleasant. And the HOV lane would be right next to us. And these buses would just fly by, and there was condensation on the windows. That's all it took. Yeah. I mean, it didn't take too long to say, hey, let's just get on that. Right?

Bob Rivard [00:16:03]:
So HOV lanes go back as far as the eighties. I didn't realize that. Yes. And yet they're a relatively new concept in San Antonio. I I get to use the I ten one, frequently because of, going out to a ranch, and I really appreciate it, especially when traffic is heavy, but it's very abbreviated Yes. Coming and going. And and I'm I'm not aware of any other HOV lanes that are out. There's a short one

Jeff Arndt [00:16:26]:
on 281 at the north end. Okay. So from about the county line, just short of 1604. We have built these 2 the ones that we've built locally are far outside headed in. The more successful way, I think, to approach them, and this is not meant critically to anybody, is you build them from the inside out. Because what we do is we get you quickly to the congestion as opposed to we get you around the congestion. Right? So in Houston, the route I took in Houston, that bus left every 3 minutes. In fact, we couldn't load the bus fast enough.

Bob Rivard [00:17:02]:
Why why don't our HOV lanes extend to inside 1604 and and and do exactly what you say, which is defeat the congestion by taking the rider all the way to, let's just say, downtown. Or

Jeff Arndt [00:17:15]:
Well, I know the TxDOT's working on in the I ten corridor to look at trying to do that. The 281 corridor, you know, is a real challenge. You know, 281, I wasn't here but you know the history better than I do. Just the challenge of getting 281 in. And that may not be a quarter where they can work that out or it would have to be all elevated. There's the expense of that. But that's why in Houston, you had park and ride lots where the average income in the eighties was over $100,000 a year of of a rider, which is quite different than even what we have today of a rider. And that's why you could get those people out of their cars and into that bus because they could go around the congestion.

Jeff Arndt [00:17:53]:
And it was running so quickly that you would park your car and just walk onto a bus and within a minute or 2, you'd be on your way. You couldn't ask for much better quality service.

Bob Rivard [00:18:02]:
But they're they're looking at that for I ten.

Jeff Arndt [00:18:04]:
I know that they're looking at how to extend the I ten.

Bob Rivard [00:18:07]:
And they're spending 1,000,000,000 of dollars on I 35, both the 1604 connection. And then if you go all the way up to Austin where they're double decking up there coming south out of Austin on I 35. And some traffic engineers that I've talked to, about that have said it'll only attract more vehicle traffic. It's not gonna offer relief. And I don't see how a man the will there be an HOV solution in that, schematic?

Jeff Arndt [00:18:34]:
Yes. There will be. They call I believe they're calling it a managed lane but different names for about the same animal. So on the elevated portions, the new portions up top, I believe there's 3 lanes in each direction and one lane in each direction will be a managed lane. It would be wonderful if you could get that managed lane to carry all through and connect to the managed lanes that Austin is building our direction. Because at that point, when there's a lot of discussion about a connection, a transit type connection between Austin and San Antonio. That's where you could start selling at least initially a bus type solution if it had its own dedicated lane and didn't get stuck in traffic.

Bob Rivard [00:19:13]:
So define bus rapid transit for our listeners that aren't familiar with it. And why wouldn't bus rapid transit be exactly that solution between San Antonio and Austin where you would if you wanted to sit in the bus with condensation on the air conditioned windows and a nice WiFi connection, you could be zipping by all those, trucks and cars that are bumper to bumper every day there.

Jeff Arndt [00:19:36]:
So bus rapid transit or we call it advanced rapid transit, a r t, but bus rapid transit is a form of rapid transit that really started with light rail transit. Right? Light rail transit was the predecessor to bus rapid transit. And it's typically in a urban environment because you're gonna have frequent stops and connect to the system. If you have a stop in San Antonio and a stop stop in Austin, that's more like regional rail. Right? Different different technology than a BRT. It would be a different name. Nonstop service like that, it doesn't matter what you call it. It would be a good deal.

Jeff Arndt [00:20:14]:
Right? Bus rapid transit, like what we are in fact on, December 18th, the FTA came here. Federal Transit Administration came to San Antonio, and I signed a an agreement with them for $268,000,000 toward the construction cost of the bus rapid transit line that we call via rapid green along the San Pedro corridor. So that's the start. Oh, congratulations on that. Let's just take a pause.

Bob Rivard [00:20:41]:
That's a big deal. $268,000,000 in federal funds? Yes. Yes. And that and that that is going to, be located on, what length of San Pedro Avenue?

Jeff Arndt [00:20:52]:
So we begin at the airport. We go south on San Pedro through, we well, we come into downtown through downtown and then we continue south to Steve's. I think Steve's in Roosevelt. That's the improvement zone. Right? And the improvements that ART or BRT include are, first of all, service design frequency. Right? Every 10 minutes. 15 on the weekends maybe, but every 10 minutes through almost the entire workday. That alone, you know, is a godsend to the transit.

Jeff Arndt [00:21:25]:
The second thing is it will be operating in dedicated lanes through a major portion of that project. So you're not gonna be mixed in traffic, And frankly, the traffic is not gonna be mixed with the bus either. It kinda works both ways. Right? That helps you improve your speed and your reliability. Right? The third thing is at the stations where stations are stops. Right? At the stations, people are gonna pay their fares at the station and not on the vehicle. So if you ride a bus today, a local bus, you know that every time the bus stops and there are people that get on the bus, they pay at the fare box. That means, first of all, they have to come in the front door.

Jeff Arndt [00:22:03]:
Right? 2nd of all, much like in the grocery store back when people wrote checks at least, the the order gets rung up and then you start looking for the checkbook. Right? Well, the same thing happens. You get on the bus and then you start looking for the fares. That really slows the the whole running time down. So instead, you'll pay on the station platform or you'll validate. That's the other thing you would do if you have a pass. Validate it. Right? And when the vehicle pulls up, it would pull up.

Jeff Arndt [00:22:34]:
The doors would all open because now you don't have to go by the fare box. Everyone gets on, the doors close, and it goes. Back and front doors. Back and front doors. And in fact, on the opposite side because some of the stations will be in the middle of the street and some on the curb. Right? On the on the on the, driver's side, there'll be 3 sets of doors. So just imagine a vehicle pulls up 3 sets of doors. Everyone gets on level boarding, which means if you're in a wheelchair, you won't need assistance.

Jeff Arndt [00:23:02]:
They won't have to cycle a ramp. We'll have self securement so that the whole process of helping people who are in mobility devices get on and off the bus. Again, which can kinda slow the bus down. It's necessary, but it does slow the bus down. Those things get mitigated. And so that combination of those things and then finally, the fact that the bus will talk to the traffic signals. And what it will say is one of 2 things. It will say, hey, I'm at a stop about to leave and I see the green but I'm I don't want you to turn red until I get through.

Jeff Arndt [00:23:37]:
That's the one thing I could say.

Bob Rivard [00:23:39]:
I'd like one of those machines myself.

Jeff Arndt [00:23:42]:
Yeah. Talk to me later. Or the second thing it might say is, I'm ready to leave and lights red. Could you turn green a little faster? Both ways to get the green either elongated or bring it up faster. Right? That will help the bus make the travel time. Now I don't want to mislead though. In the, in the entirety of an hour, right, that signal is going to readjust. If it gave me extra time this way, the next cycle, it's gonna adjust back.

Jeff Arndt [00:24:12]:
Right? Now our buses every 10 minutes are gonna hit that signal cycle maybe, once every 10 cycles. Right? For so there's plenty of time. They call that the the recovery. So the net time, north south, and the net time east west remains the same, but there is this tweaking of distribution. It's not like an ambulance. It's not gonna turn it red and hold it red. It will be a priority type use based upon the request and whether it's in a recovery and all those things. All that stuff together means that you're gonna have more more reliable travel time.

Jeff Arndt [00:24:44]:
You're gonna have shorter travel time. You're gonna have shorter waits. In combination, for example, if you are on the south side of town, you know, big that seems to be booming right now. Right? South side of town, you're trying to get to the airport on the bus. You're probably shaving shaving 20 minutes off that trip time altogether.

Bob Rivard [00:25:01]:
What about for people arriving at the airport? Will this now be the way that if I'm coming to a convention, downtown, a meeting downtown, I'm gonna wanna take that bus, or am I still gonna opt for a taxi and an Uber because it's about the same time?

Jeff Arndt [00:25:17]:
I think, it could be a little both. Plus, we have a line right now that picks you up there and come straight into downtown, but it doesn't operate at that frequency. Right?

Bob Rivard [00:25:25]:
I've been on that bus, Jeff, and I mostly found airport workers on it versus visitors.

Jeff Arndt [00:25:30]:
And that is fairly typical of that kind of airport service. I've been on airport service buses in other cities, and I'm usually the only, quote, pedestrian.

Bob Rivard [00:25:39]:
What year are you gonna complete this San Pedro project to where it'll be operating?

Jeff Arndt [00:25:43]:
In late 2027. Okay. So we got the funding today wrapped up, tied down. We're recording this on December 18th. I'm sorry. I I did that. I tried that earlier. That's alright.

Jeff Arndt [00:25:55]:
On December 18th. We we are completing final design right now. Expect to be out in the field probably March. I would say starting, like, retail utility pole relocation. Get it out of the way of stations, for example, and stuff like that. And so by 2027, should be operating. So I would say anticipate a groundbreaking in March of next year and then an opening sometime in late 2027. I've already put them on my calendar so I can come back.

Bob Rivard [00:26:27]:
Before we talk about succession in your job and your retirement, let's talk about financing and where we stand because it's not as bleak as it was when you started and we were operating basically on a if I'm correct me if I'm mistaken, but where most major metros in Texas were getting 1 cent out of the sales tax, we were getting a half cent. We now have moved under mayor Ron Nierenberg to a system where we've reallocated the money that was going to to protect the watershed. The watershed protection went into the San Antonio city budget, and the sales tax was reallocated to workforce development but with the expiration date on that with the x-ray sent then coming over to Via Metropolitan that would increase you to 3 quarters of a cent. Is that correct?

Jeff Arndt [00:27:17]:
Roughly. So you're correct to start with that Houston, Dallas and Austin, so there's 4 big ones in San Antonio, that all 3 of those do have the full 1¢. So of the discretionary 2¢ that the state permits, all 4 cities, 1¢ goes to the city. In the other 3 cities, the other 1¢ goes 100% to transit. In San Antonio, we spread it. You know, we spread the peanut butter thin sometimes, don't we? And so we spread it. Half a cent went to went to Via. Then the first, ATD, advanced transportation sales tax, that was the next quarter, half of that comes to Via.

Jeff Arndt [00:27:55]:
So we were actually on a half and an eighth is what we had. And then the other portion of that was split between the city and essentially the county. Right? Then the last piece, the last quarter was split evenly between pre k and aquifer protection in Lanier Creek. Right? So pre k is still there and it was voted again in 2020. That last piece, that last one eighth, right, is dedicated to s a you know, the ready work program until 2026. At that point, it will come over to Via. All of that will come over to Via because the city and the county have both agreed that while technically they have control of pieces of that, then the voters approved a transit plan. And so both city council and the county commissioner's court have have essentially said, yes.

Jeff Arndt [00:28:46]:
The voters said it should go to the keep San Antonio moving plan, so it should go there. So all of that will come in. That last 8¢ is the only reason we can afford to do the BRT projects because that is the source of the operating funds for both that line, the green line, and a future line. And it's also the source of, construction funds for the green line right now. And and just one other point, which is that piece was for aquifer protection and linear creeks. And the county picked up the linear creek portion. And I believe I believe SAW has picked up the I think you're right. The other portion.

Jeff Arndt [00:29:25]:
But, yeah, but the county came in and took took that half.

Bob Rivard [00:29:28]:
Well, I welcome guests that can come on here and correct me because I I I need an editor. Every editor needs an editor. Everybody does. One eighth cent sounds minuscule to many of our listeners, Jeff. But in fact, over the course of years in a major metropolitan area, you've pointed out to me before, these are macro dollars.

Jeff Arndt [00:29:46]:
Yes.

Bob Rivard [00:29:47]:
And the difference between what a Houston or a Dallas collected in Austin versus San Antonio, that just builds up to where the difference was not just tens of 1,000,000 of dollars, but 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars. And I would add to that that because they had 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars more than us, they qualified for federal matching funds for various transit projects

Jeff Arndt [00:30:08]:
that we just weren't in that game. Totally correct. The interesting thing, Houston Metro, their first light rail line, they build out of their savings account. They didn't even need federal help. They had so much money. And what year was that? That would that opened in 2,002. 2002. It was January 1, 2002 at 10 AM.

Jeff Arndt [00:30:28]:
I was there. 22 years ago. Yes. Now they've subsequently built additional lines and they've subsequently, therefore I mean, they, you know, they use their savings, if you will. So they subsequently have pursued federal funding. What Houston Metro did, to the industry because of their funding situation, historically, these kinds of projects were 80% federal, 20% local. And they came in and they said, how about we do it 5050? It made it far more sellable to the federal government. And over time, that 5050 split became the norm and not the exception.

Jeff Arndt [00:31:03]:
Now on the green line, we're at 5644. Right? Which way? 56 federal. Okay. So the the federal government has been so extremely helpful in this whole process for us. The first time we pursued it, they have really bent over backwards to help us, work our way through their system.

Bob Rivard [00:31:24]:
Do you think that that happens, Jeff, regardless of whether it's a Biden administration or a Trump administration, will we see stability on that front in terms of the relationship as we buy for more federal dollars?

Jeff Arndt [00:31:35]:
I think that historic so you can only what's the what has the past been? The past has been that transportation has been pretty much, you know, across across the aisle. Right? Everybody has transportation needs. The republicans and the democrats who are elected all have projects of this nature and other other natures, obviously, in their districts. And so they don't tend to say, we're gonna shut that down because they've been they feel that everybody is benefiting from that. Now, you know, predicting future behavior by past behavior, I I can't do that. You know?

Bob Rivard [00:32:09]:
Nobody can. No. But can you predict though that, there are more collaborative deals that will be signed by your your successor with the federal government because we're increasing our local, investment in Via? So the the

Jeff Arndt [00:32:24]:
1.8¢ that we're going to start getting in 2026. I and I just have to say this. We went to the voters in 2020 with a plan, right, that we were going to start getting money for in 2026. But between now that point and now, and we're not in 2026, we're just going into 2025. Right? We have implemented big pieces of that plan. And how did we do that? With COVID relief funds, we kept them back knowing that we had a major capital project, and we kept those funds back. They're one time funds, so you can't use them to run things. Right? But you can use them to design a project for

Bob Rivard [00:33:00]:
What kind of money were we talking about?

Jeff Arndt [00:33:02]:
We're talking somewhere between a 115, to 100,000,000. Oh, real money? Yeah. Real money. If we hadn't had that, we would have to have waited until 2026 to start the whole process. But, you know, we've always been very fiscally frugal. I'll just say that. I I think sometimes when you don't have a lot, you're probably look at every penny a a lot differently. Right? And so we we've been able to put in to put in some of these, new zones, using some of that money knowing that when the 2026 funds start coming in, we can pick that up.

Jeff Arndt [00:33:33]:
That 1 8¢ is spoken for. So that's what I they have threatened to make a t shirt that said that 1 8¢ done been spent, but it has been fully allocated. It's allocated to, future operating cost of the green line because you have to be able to prove you can operate it in order to get the federal funds. Future operating cost of a second line, the silver line, the east west line, and then maintaining some of the service that we've introduced early. Right? So my my successor in Via moving forward, we do have a second project. It is the silver line, the east west line, essentially from, in, Our Lady of Lake University across the Frost Center Frost Bank Center. It was not in the plan the voters approved because we knew that if we receive that money, that we still couldn't fully afford that plan. And that was one thing I'm really proud that we did because there are many systems that will promise a whole lot more than they're ultimately able to deliver, and we didn't wanna promise anything that that 1 8¢ wouldn't buy.

Jeff Arndt [00:34:41]:
Right? So we didn't promise the east west line, but it was in a plan. It was in the, Connect SA plan that, you know, Henry Cisneros and Hope Andrade helped put put together back in 2019. So we started looking at that plan, and we started actually working on the plan, but we knew we didn't have the funds. We had enough operating money because we reserved that out of the 1 eighth. We and that's a harder thing to get because you need it every year every year. But we didn't have a $100,000,000 for the local match, for construction. Commissioner's court under judge Sakai helped us out, and they have committed to a $100,000,000 to make that local match for the silver line. So without the county commissioner's court, and I think sometimes they got they're kind of the unsung heroes in some cases.

Jeff Arndt [00:35:31]:
In that case, I think very strongly. Without that 100,000,000, the silver line would still be just a dream. With that commitment by the county, it's not just a dream. Now we have the funding all lined up that would that would, allow us to go to the federal government and get the same kind of grant we just got for the silver line. So we're working forward through that plan. That plan is probably 2 years offset from the green line. So if the green line opens in late 27, the silver line would open in late 29 or 2030 as as as those things roll out. Without that 100,000,000 though, we we would be stuck.

Jeff Arndt [00:36:09]:
And that also means, if you think about the the corollary to all that, which is we are fully committed at that point. All of that new money is rolled into operating the green line, paying for construction of the green line, operating the silver line, operating the, mobility on demand zones, the VIA link zones, and whatever frequency we can we can shore up.

Bob Rivard [00:36:31]:
Well, congratulations to getting all of that done in anticipation of the 2026 tax increase and seeing some of it realized under your watch before you go. When you look back at your at your years here, Jeff, is is there anything that you really thought you might get done that didn't get done or any any projects you're leaving on the drawing board or table that you thought realistically could have been undertaken in your time here? I I think that

Jeff Arndt [00:37:01]:
for, for the first portion of my time here, I I don't think I could have dreamed of the green line even. Right? But we knew that there would be some opportunity. That's almost I mean, that as I said, on 18th December, it was like, you know, I was living in a dream. Right? It's something I dreamed of. It was hard to think it could be realized, but it was realized. And knowing the silver line is right behind it, that's like, you know, icing on the cake. It's it's extraordinary. So if I look at, what's left undone, I don't think it's any different than any other CEO leaving.

Jeff Arndt [00:37:34]:
Right? A lot of it's internal. We're in the midst of roll out in some structural changes in the organization to better support how Via is evolving. We're developing a, more, training for our frontline managers. All those things that you want to have. Right? And sometimes you don't focus in on them as much because believe me, we have been running at, you know, 300 miles an hour to get all the all all of this in line so we could get this full funding grant agreement before Christmas. And I just kept telling everybody, I only want one thing for Christmas, but it does cost $268,000,000. And they came through. They're they are remarkable people.

Bob Rivard [00:38:14]:
Well, Merry Christmas. Thank you. Looking now, here we are at the start of 2025, an awful lot's going to unfold in a good way for for Via in 2026 with this. How what is it? 1 8 cent sales tax? That's north of $30,000,000 a year.

Jeff Arndt [00:38:29]:
It's north of 40,000,000, I think.

Bob Rivard [00:38:30]:
40 now. Okay. Yeah. The city continues to grow. So you look at at what's coming and and the green line coming and then the the silver line. It must have you must have thought a little bit about should I sign up for another 5 years here to see all of these projects to fruition or maybe you didn't think that.

Jeff Arndt [00:38:48]:
I think, my decision was made by a decision I made some years ago that I stuck to. And I'm I'm not a person who just stubbornly said, I decided this and I'll never change my mind. And my decision was that I would be retired before I turn 70. I will turn 70 on February 2nd. I will retire on January 3rd. That I believe is today.

Bob Rivard [00:39:12]:
So congratulations Yes. In order for that. And I wanna talk about life post retirement. But first, what about the succession plan? I I always feel like when people are able to promote internally that that's the sign of a healthy organization where there's good succession planning and leadership development. So talk about the next CEO of of Via.

Jeff Arndt [00:39:34]:
I I will echo what you just said. I think when you hire when you're able to hire, the next CEO from within, it's a sign that things are in good order and things are moving in a good direction. Right? After all, if they're not in a good order, are you gonna hire somebody who's part of not of the bad order to to rearrange things? So the board, when I gave my, you know, retirement notice, I I talked to them and I have to say how much I appreciate my board because they don't have to listen to me about any of this fully their decision. But I told them that I think we have a group of senior vice presidents, any one of which could be a successful CEO. And, what they ultimately decided to do is interview from among that group, the people that were interested because all 5 weren't necessarily interested. And they said, what we'll do is we'll interview that group. And then if we're not sure, or we're not satisfied, well, then we'll go through a a broader recruitment process. We had done an initial recruitment process with an outside consultant.

Jeff Arndt [00:40:38]:
He brought some names forward and everything. But the the whole point was, as you say, we're kind of like a horse in the middle. You know, you don't change horses in the middle of stream. Right? We're kind of in the middle of stream. And unless you don't have confidence in the people that got you to the middle, you kind of figured they're gonna get you at the other end. So I I agree. I think it spoke really highly of the quality of the staff at Via. I think we built, I think, an extraordinary team.

Jeff Arndt [00:41:03]:
When you look at the senior vice presidents, we have we have Trammell Brown who's been with the authority 35 years and came in as a part time Via trans operator who's running the entire operation now. We have John Clamp, who's running administration, and he is a change agent. I'll say that. We have, Rod Sanchez, who was really our primary person over the city when we're doing the initial work here. It was like, okay. Let's bring him in house now. And he he's amazing, and he's got a very strong team. Bonnie Prosser Elder is chief counsel, and she's a senior VP.

Jeff Arndt [00:41:36]:
But, obviously, I think she really likes that piece of of, you know, what's happening, so she wasn't interested. And then, John Gary Herrera, who has been selected as the next CEO. So he's been with us for 7 years. He's been in public engagement. When you're in public engagement, as you can imagine, you really have to understand everything that's going on because everything gets thrown at you, and you can't always just duck and hide. Right? John Gary, there are a number of things I really admire about John Gary. I think the thing I admire most about him is that he is self aware, and he will admit when he has a weakness, and he will say, this is what I need to shore that up. That's a real sign of vulnerability and maturity that often is lacking, especially at the CEO level.

Jeff Arndt [00:42:21]:
He's a remarkable guy. You know, he's got many, many contacts throughout the community. He's been around around. He grew up in San Antonio. So I I'm just really excited for him. Believe me, if I, wasn't comfortable with any of that, I wouldn't be upset because I'm essentially handing over Absolutely. Your legacy. Yeah.

Jeff Arndt [00:42:40]:
And, at one time I said I felt like a foster parent giving the child away. And, our vice chair, now our chair elect, Laura Cabanillo, she says, I think you're more like a grandfather. And at first, I thought, oh, you think I'm old? But then I stopped to think, and I talked to her afterwards. And she says, no. It's the emotional connection. You know, you're emotionally connected to your grandchildren. And she says, you clearly you clearly have a an emotional connection to Via. And as a grandparent, you're gonna care very much about what happens.

Jeff Arndt [00:43:15]:
And that's where that statement came from, and I love it now.

Bob Rivard [00:43:18]:
Well, I think it's the emotional connection is very evident, Jeff, or you wouldn't be talking about coming to ribbon cuttings several years from now Yeah. Especially from where you're going. And and, we're running out of time, but I want our listeners to, and maybe those, out there who are thinking about their own retirement to hear, a little bit about what your plans are post retirement.

Jeff Arndt [00:43:39]:
Sure. So I've had a lot of people say, oh, are you gonna consult? Or, you know, or I know you could consult, or I've even had people Nice. With, you know, would you, you know, would you like to join us and everything? And my response is, no. I'm retiring. And I understand, you know, what retired means better. And I or at least what it means for me. I appreciate people retire and then continue doing a lot of what they were doing before. My idea, I want to have a brand new adventure.

Jeff Arndt [00:44:05]:
I want to have, you know, this next chapter be something unlike anything I've done before. And so my husband and I will be moving to Mexico, next year. And when I say moving, I mean moving like a 100% living, along the Pacific side. Selling the house in Lavaca? Yep. Or leasing. We're still discussing that, Bob. But yes, we won't we're not keeping it so we can move back every 6 months. We will be living 2 blocks from the beach with a oceanfront, you know, condo, and I don't I have trouble imagining what that's gonna be like.

Jeff Arndt [00:44:42]:
What I do imagine is once we get moved, and I know there's gonna be a lot of transition through that move, then I'm gonna start looking around. But not necessarily, hey, what what can I do in transportation here? I wanna look around at maybe doing something completely different. Teaching math. I would love to teach math. I would love to to sell jewelry in a jewelry store. I know that's completely out out out there, but there's lots of things I would like to do that aren't anything to do with transit. And this would be an opportunity. Fortunately, I have a lot of hobbies anyhow, so it's not like I'm gonna wake up one day and say, I don't have an office to go to, so what am I gonna do? I have a keyboard that I probably pay 2 hours a year right now because I just don't have time, and I'm looking forward to that.

Jeff Arndt [00:45:24]:
Well, that'll be

Bob Rivard [00:45:24]:
a great base also for exploring Mexico more deeply, and, that's a wonderful part of the Pacific, coast there of the the state of Nayarit where you're going. I'm curious. Does purchasing real estate give you a path to residency there, Jeff? Because you won't be coming a lot of people divide their time between San Antonio and and and San Miguel or Mexico City, other places on the coast. But you're going down there full time. So Yes. Does the Mexican government are you going into some official, you know, program line where you'll become a

Jeff Arndt [00:45:56]:
I'll be a resident, but not a citizen.

Bob Rivard [00:45:58]:
And and that's how it'll stay. You'll keep your your US passport, but you'll you'll I

Jeff Arndt [00:46:04]:
could become a citizen if I if I desired. But you know what I wanna do? I wanna vote for the mayor of San Antonio.

Bob Rivard [00:46:11]:
I wonder if you'll be able to do that by, absentee ballot from Mexico or if you have to come back for a visit.

Jeff Arndt [00:46:16]:
We'll have to see, won't we? But I yeah. I I I am not seeking citizenship, but residency which allows you to stay beyond the the tourist limit. You know? And so, actually, it's a 2 step process. We've already finished the US side and, next month or late I should say later in in January, we're going back to finish the Mexico side. And then we'll have residency, which means we don't we can come and go and not have to worry about how long we're there.

Bob Rivard [00:46:45]:
Well, I've had a front row seat on on the city for 35 years, Jeff, and you've been one of the really, great public leaders in our our city, and we'll miss you. But, we'll also appreciate everything you've done at Via and in the community, and we'll stay in touch somehow. Maybe come

Jeff Arndt [00:47:01]:
down for a visit. Yeah. It's been nothing but a pleasure, and it's really been a pleasure to know you, Bob.

Bob Rivard [00:47:06]:
Well, thanks for coming on to Big City, Small Town. Thank you. Welcome to the last word, my weekly commentary on life and work in San Antonio and Texas. This is the last episode where you'll hear the last word as part of my Friday podcast episode each week. Next week, the last word will be released as a separate podcast on Saturday morning, one day after the Friday release of my weekly interview. The Saturday episode also will contain my comments on the week's news, giving me a more timely platform to talk about major developments, opportunities, and challenges. I also invite listeners to go to our website, bigcitysmalltown.com, and sign up to start receiving the newsletter we will launch soon. It'll contain alerts to our newest episodes, suggest listening opportunities from our growing archive, and allow me to share timely viewpoints to news developments.

Bob Rivard [00:48:02]:
No spam, we promise, and we will not share your email with other entities. President Donald Trump, governor Greg Abbott, and a host of other conservative political office holders have inflamed American voters with fear and loathing of immigrants. We are a nation founded on the promise of political and religious freedom for new arrivals from Europe, and our economy and national identity has been built on successive waves of immigrants from countries around the world. Yet suddenly, immigrants are the enemy. Once again, bouts of national xenophobia come and go in cycles, and we are right now in the worst cycle of anti immigrant sentiment that I've seen in my lifetime. The far right is now in power in this country just as it has long been in power in Texas. The toxic political language it deploys has served to dehumanize people seeking a better tomorrow, people who willingly fill the least paying, most menial jobs at the bottom of the US economy, jobs that US workers do not want. Yet to hear Trump, Abbott, and others speak, you would think they were talking about rabid dogs loose on our streets, some clear and present danger.

Bob Rivard [00:49:15]:
A danger to who? Immigrant studies show do not commit crimes with any greater frequency than citizens. They work hard, and many of them pay federal income taxes and into the Social Security system without any hope of ever recouping those payments. One leading reason the US economy is so much stronger than our democratic counterparts in Europe is because we have a ready supply of immigrants, mostly young immigrants, willing to fill the least appealing jobs, while an aging European population makes do without the young working population it needs to stay fully productive. My pro immigrant views do not mean I favor open borders. I do not. And it does not mean that I think every person crossing our borders deserves to be here. Many seeking political asylum are in fact in danger of dying if they stay in their home countries, but many others are simply seeking a better economic future. We shouldn't grant them political asylum.

Bob Rivard [00:50:17]:
We should reform a judicial system that takes years to adjudicate asylum cases. It should take a few months at most, and the comprehensive immigration reform put forward last year by the Biden administration that drew bipartisan support in the congress would have taken a system that is in a state of chaos and brought reform and common sense to processing asylum cases and creating enough new jobs to better police the border and process realistic quotes of annual legal immigration. Trump cynically killed that bill to deny the Biden administration of a political win that would have erased the issue in the presidential campaign. That's one reason why Trump, not vice president Kamala Harris, won the election. We can end the cycles of undocumented immigration waves that have beset our country since the first Trump presidency and only grew worse under Biden. We've missed one chance to do that. Let's hope Trump reintroduces a similar bill that would easily pass in the new Congress. This time, he can take all the credit as he is won't to do.

Bob Rivard [00:51:28]:
Meanwhile, unless the Trump administration is going to reorganize its own extrajudicial police or paramilitary force, I do not see him keeping his promise to undertake the mass deportation of immigrants. Who is going to identify them, detain them, imprison them, and then find countries willing to accept them? I could be wrong, but time will soon tell. I hope the United States remains a country open to controlled legal immigration, where quotas actually meet economic and business realities. Right now there is a big gap between what is legal and what is really needed. That's my last word for this week. Thank you for listening. Watch for our new Saturday releases starting next week, and go to our website and sign up for the newsletter. It's free, and we promise to make it worth your time and attention.

Bob Rivard [00:52:24]:
Thank you for listening, and please share this episode with friends and colleagues at work. And please check out our new YouTube channel where we are starting to post videos of some of our events and episodes. A special thanks to our sponsor, Westin Urban, building the city our children want to call home, and Geekdom where startups are born and nurtured into new businesses. Shouldn't you be a member? Special thanks to our production team, producers Ashley Bird and Moira Bobbitt with Blooming with Bertie, and Erica Rempel, videographer and content creator, and Alfie de la Garza of Sound Crane Audio. We'll see you next week.