In the San Antonio mayor's race, Carroll Schubert the conservative listed as major supporters and friends, not just contributers, some of the richest, most powerful people in San Antonio. Who are these people and why are they so powerful? And what should the rest of us know about them?As a relative newcomer to San Antonio, and someone who is definitely not powerful I had grown accustomed to hear that developers ruled the city. I imagined Republicans were all developers and all developers were Republicans. I imagined they all fit my personal stereotype of developers as cigar-chomping, crude and ruthless, maybe tied to gangsters and in the habit of giving bribes. I was wrong. There's a network of super-rich, superpowerful people, not all of whom are developers, but many of whom benefit greatly from ruthless development.They include construction people, engineers, oil people, and financial people, lawyers and publicists and people in the media. But it's more complicated than that. And I have to say, a lot of the people on Carroll Schubert's list are very impressive people, often bold, often adventurous, with much achievement and a real sense of civic pride and community commitment. They can't possibly all be seeing eye to eye on the Bush/Perry/Christian Right agenda. Most of them, at any rate, don't come across as anything close to right wing Christian zealots. Yet in their support of Republicans they damage all of us and themselves. I am guessing that they are united by bonds of community and self-interest which lead them to narrow perceptions of the best way to do things. They'd probably guffaw if they heard themselves described as people who have a narrow view, but we're all susceptible, none more than those who are successful in a powerful but limited arena and who spend their time surrounded by same, especially in a larger culture which defines the world as black and white and drives us into opposite corners. I suspect, too, among some of them there is a certain inability to think outside the box of already-used approaches to making money, a "don't fix it if it ain't broke" attitude which doesn't admit that "it" is broke. Many of them a do have the city's best interests at heart and they believe they know best how to tend to them. But they don't. There are other perspectives they should know about. In possessing, what shall I say, a limited mindset they aren't different from the rest of us. We all benefit when we allow our mindsets to come into contact with other mindsets. This is how good change comes about.
We need to talk to some of these people.
For others of you who may be as naive as I was, here's a basic introduction into what these folks do:
- Charlie Amato -- Founder, Chairman of the Board SWB Corporation, insurance, mortgages and "investment solutions". Founder of Businessmen's Hall of Fame.
- Ernesto Ancira, Jr. -- Huge car business and links with energy resources here and in Mexico, among other things. Also treasurer of Schubert's campaign.
- Hope Andrade -- Vice Chair, OptimaCare, a home health company. Commissioner, Texas Highway Commission (think toll roads).
- Sam Barshop -- Barshop and Oles, developer of luxury shopping centers, etc. including over the aquifer and founder of the La Quinta Inns motel chain (which I have to say we frequent because they always allow pets). Recently he and wife Ann donated big bucks for UTHSC's Sam and Ann Barshop Center for the Study of Longevity and Aging, interestingly enough opened at the Texas Research Park on the west side of San Antonio, a park which recently had been losing tenants, not gaining them.
- Bob Coleman -- Founder and Chair, Texace, a company that manufactures hats. But don't be fooled. This guy's company lists as its partners Troon Golf, an organization which "creates extraordinary experiences at the greatest golf properties in the world...Golf's first and foremost luxury brand" and St. Andrews Links Trust, the ultimate fancy golf club in Scotland where, incidentally, Tom DeLay just had a vacation at Jack Abramoff's expense. I'm not suggesting a link (excuse the pun). I think this guy really likes rubbing elbows with the very rich and famous.
- Gene Dawson, Jr. and Sam Dawson -- Owners, Pape-Dawson Engineers, "the largest locally owned engineering and surveing company in San Antonio." Projects include Valero Corporate Headquarters, SBC Center, Rogers Ranch and The Dominion, La Cantera, Retama Park and the Hyatt Hill Country Resourt, The Quarry at Lincoln Heights, and another bunch of quarries, not so pretty, owned by Martin Marietta Materials; surveying Project Starbright which is the Toyota site and various highway projects. They build in the Hill Country and over The Aquifer
- Trish DeBerry -- Partner, Guerra, DeBerry, Coody: Marketing and Communications. Political campaigns have included work for Bush/Cheney in 2000, the National Republican Party, National Republican Senatorial Committee, Jeb Bush for Governor campaign, Rick Perry for Governor Campaign, and the Henry Bonilla Campaign, these campaigns with a general emphasis on Hispanic voters. Also has worked on PR for No Child Left Behind and the White House Initiative on Education. The firm has done "crisis" work for Lumbermens/Professional Golfers Association as well -- Think PGA Village.
- Walter Embrey -- President, Embrey Properties, Ltd, a national development company specializing in commercial and multi-family ventures including the Isom Trade Center where buddies have offices, and other projects including over the Aquifer.
- Tom Frost is Frost Bank.
- Bill Greehey -- Bill Greehey is Valero, one of the hundred best companies to work in in the U.S. It also is number 55 of the Fortune 500. If corporations have to exist, this is one that should exist. It has worked very effectively to develop technologies that reduce CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions and is open in reporting aspects of cost and technology concerning greenhouse gases, all the way down to the consumer. It's a company that receives a Triple A rating in inclusion of Hispanics on the Board and in high positions according to a 2001 La Prensa San Diego article. This in a world in which 854 of Fortune's top 1000 companies have no Hispanics on Boards or in executive positions and in which 20 entire industries including health care, sporting goods, food and grocery wholesalers and securities firms don't. It also participates very actively and generously in charitable giving in San Antonio. Charitable giving is an iffy area for corporations, and Valero is a master at combining fun and commerce with charity in its participation in San Antonio PGA Tour events, but it gives widely and to a diverse group of organizations. Valero doesn't need to support Republican Right candidates. IF it does.
- Jack Guenther -- If I'm right, Jack Guenther is a member of Guenther and Son, Inc., family. Guenther and Son is the Pioneer flour company which now owns several brands and distributes frozen products as well as flour and the like. Jack seems to serve on many Boards among arts and charities organizations.
- Gordan Hartman is a developer who builds lots of homes over the Aquifer.
- Jim Hasslocher -- Frontier Enterprises/Jim's Restaurants. Hasslocher's company had run the Tower Restaurant in Hemisphere Park since it opened and lost the contract to Landry's a year or so ago. The restaurant wasn't very good and wasn't really making anywhere near the most of the opportunities the Tower presents.
- .Tim Hixon -- Hixon Properties. But not your typical developer. He is a memeber of the Downtown Alliance and active on The Riverwalk. His business interests appear to be focused on the center of the city. If anything, he is a protector of the Aquifer, at least as far as I can tell. He has been called the champion of Government Canyon Park, a new park over the Aquifer. He is an ardent conservationist and a member of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission. He fishes and has hunted. All you liberals out there who've never lived away from a city, this is okay as long as you're not hanging out with a bunch of drunks and shooting animals with automatic weapons or from the comforts of home or not giving them a chance by shooting from a car in a private game reserve or from the comforts of home over an internet connection or something like that. A lot of true hunters have a real understanding and appreciation of wilderness.
- Peter Holt -- The San Antonio Spurs, of course, are Peter Holt's baby. He can afford this baby because he is the owner of Holt Enterprises, the nations largest CATERPILLAR dealership, and one of the largest dealerships in the world. He is the fourth generation of CAT dealers, his grandfather, Benjamin, having developed the first CAT. CATs I'm sure you know are useful in big construction.
- Ed Kelley -- President and CEO of USAA Real Estate Co. He is also (or has been) the chairman of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation, a private organization whose purpose is to attract new business to San Antonio. I learned some interesting things at the SA Economic Development Foundation's website. Most of us I think are aware that the service industry is San Antonio's biggest source of employment hiring 32% of workers. Trade is second with 24% and government is third with 20%. Did you know that construction only accounts for 6% of employment and finance, real estate and insurance combined only account for 7%? These last industries are responsible for much concentrated wealth in our area. Unemployment has been creeping up since 1999 whenit was 3.9%. I believe today it is in the area of 5.6%. You might also be interested to know that the EDF is promoting the fact that we have low density housing as an advanatage to living here. Translate that to urban sprawl. Also it is advertising the fact that McMansions are cheap here. Read development, urban sprawl, resource guzzling. Yet, they advertise that we have wonderful clean air, without mentioning that it is increasingly threatened by the urban sprawl they are promoting. As is our water.
- Cyndi Krier -- One of the more strident members of this group. She is a professional go getter for herself and has benefitted from the support of extreme right organizations including Texans for Governmental Integrity, founded by Dr. James Leininger, a somewhat shadowy extremist with lots of money. She has been a state senator, a Bexar County judge and a USAA lobbyist. She is currently on the UT Board of Regents where she will serve until 2007. The UT Board of Regents is an interesting group to look into. Krier also is a member of the Philosophical Society of Texas, It's kind of fun to look this site over. It doesn't appear to be extreme, but rather genteel in its approach to Texas history and issues.
- Lowry Mays -- The Chairman of the Board of the (in)famous Clear Channel Communications. He's a member of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation.
- Joe C. McKinney -- Vice Chairman of the Board, Broadway Bank; Retired chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase Bank, San Antonio Region. Is (or has been) chairman of the San Antonio Economic Development Foundation.
- Forrest Millar -- President of SBC External Affairs and Planning Group. Is he a stand-in for Ed and Linda Whitacre? Don't know much more about him.
- Sam Millsap -- Attorney, former Bexar County District Attorney, specializes currently in health law and employment law. It's possible he has, at times, actually been one of those nasty trial lawyers that Bush so dislikes. In 1985, he won "The Good Guy Award" from the Texas Women's Political Caucus and the Mary K. Polk Leadership Award from the Texas Council on Family Violence. Most recently, although an advocate of the death penalty, he has spoken out in favor of a moratorium on the exercise of the death penalty in Texas saying, "Our system in Texas is broken. Until it is fixed and we are satisfied that only the guilty can be put to death, there should be no more executions in Texas."
- Palmer Moe -- Is currently the Managing Director of the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation in San Antonio. He worked in the busines of energy for thirty five years including as President and Chief Operating Officer of Valero from 1983-1992. Currentlyhe is on the Board of Whiting Petroleum of Denver. The Kronkosky Foundation looms large in the life of San Antonio to which it devotes most of its many financial resources. You might be interested to learn that its program areas include health and human services where it concerns itself with quality of life issues for the elderly and people with disabilities, with child abuse and neglect and with medical research; cultural efforts devoted to "meaningful activities" and the broadening of public participation and to improving and expaning public use of "information and learning" available in museums and public libraries; and expansion and improvement of public parks, zoos and wildlife sanctuaries, the prevention of cruelty to animals , and assistance to victims of "public disasters" in Texas. The Kronkosky Foundation gave a lot of money for the development of Government Canyon Park.
- John Peveto -- Founder of a very lucrative nation-wide chain of brake repair shops called Brake Check. It seems like he has a real sense of fun: he is a member of Los Compadres, a Harley motorcycling club and Cigar Solamente, a cigar aficionado's club which does in some magical way obtain the occasional Cuban cigar.
- Gene Powell -- Bitterblue, Inc, a development corporation. It also seems to include a little oil company. Cute. Powell was a 2004 Bush pioneer and his wife contributed $5000 to the Bush Florida recount effort. He is also one of the biggest contributor to Susan Combs, the strongest advocate for Texas HB 2833 which seeks to define "any combination of city actions limiting impervious cover [over the aquifer] to 45% as a "taking" for which the landowner must be fully compensated. (See aquifer alert on this blog) He is a prime developer of land over the aquifer. His most recent over-the-aquifer project is a development south of 1604 and between Lockhill-Selma and Salado Creek where he is building 1250 homes and some commercial on 716 acres. He was recently in the news when with his partner Denton Communities he volunteered that by mistake he had thinned cedar trees on a tract near the proposed PGA Village, a tract which was endangered species habitat. He set aside some other acreage for the birds. Powell makes some token efforts to give money to conservationists and liberals. He has donated 500 dollars to the Bexar County Land Trust and 500 dollars to Patti Radle's campaign for City Council. Patti is a social activist and in my mind the only really, really honest with herself as well as the rest of us councilperson..
- Carl Raba -- Doctor Carl Raba (BS;MS; PhD Engineering, Texas A&M) -- is the chairman and CEO of Raba-Kistner Consultants. He and his wife who is retired chair and CEO are the only folks I know of on this list who have a school named after them: Dr Carl and Bunny Jean Raba Elementary School, "Home of the Rattlers", located on Raba Drive in the Northside Independent School District. Raba-Kistner does consulting and testing in environmental, forensic and pavement, and it does geotechnical engineering. It is precertified to do about a hundred things related to road construction for the Texas Department of Transportation. Good things it's done: the handbook on managing lead-based paint in city housing where it was used before 1978; the leader in the area in using recycled materials, particularly concrete at Brooks City Base where it showed that it was not only environmentally sounder to do this but economically wiser. Not so hot: City government still remembers that "Raba-Kistner had cost the pubalic taxpayer millions of dollars during their work on the Alamodome" and had a negative reputation for not doing an adequate job there. Thus, they were not considered for work on the San Antonio River Improvement Project.
- Edward Steves -- from an old, old San Antonio family. His family's homestead is a major attraction on the San Antonio Conservation Society's list of historic homes to visit. His wife is on the board of directors of said society. His family's business initially was lumber, but today it is a manufacturer of thousands upon thousands of doors sold nationally and, the company hopes, soon internationally.
- Tullos Wells -- Managing partner of the San Antonio area offices of the law firm Bracewell and Giuliani: yes, that Giuliani. This is one of the largest law firms in the country. Wells is Board Certified in labor and employment law and hospitality, sports and entertainment law. He tends to defend against charges of discrimination, etc, and does it with great success. He is interesting in part because he is Chairman of the Board of the Austin San Antonio Intermunicipal Commuter Rail District and he is a gung-ho advocate of commuter rail. You can hear him talk about it at www.tpr.org by clicking on Texas Matters #139. He says there's only so much concrete you can pour, and you simply can't pour enough to build roads to link San Antonio and Austin. He's a colorful and detailed speaker. With him at the helm of the board, I can't believe it won't work. Interestingly, Sam Barshop and Carroll Schubert are on the board of the commuter rail district.
- Marty Wender-- sounds like a mentsch, socially. He is a big time developer, responsible for the 3500 acre planned, mixed use development known as Westover Hills. Among other things. He seems particularly proud to have facilitated very fast the conversion of hiway 151 into a mini freeway that bisects the development. He's listed as one of the top 100 developers in the nation.
